Playing the Ball Where It Lies: Part 2

We're gonna go ahead and get into the message this evening then. Philippians chapter four again. Philippians chapter four. The technology bug got me again tonight. Had some passages on my computer to throw up on the screen and well, something happened wrong because I got here and I had saved the wrong document.

So, it probably wasn't the computer. It was probably me but the passages are all here in the Bible. So, we'll just have to look up some of em instead. Philippians chapter four verse 10, again, Paul says, but I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last your care of me hath flourished again wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of one.

For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, there with to be, help me out. Are you all following along? Okay. So I've learned whatsoever state I am therewith to be Content. Okay.

Some of you are with me. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Now, some of us, all of us have been through a lot of up and downs in life. Sometimes, it seems like it's more down than up and sometimes the downs can be pretty sharp.

But chances are we haven't dealt with quite as many ups and downs as Paul did at least in respect to his physical condition or his state in respect to his treatment by others. Sometimes he'd go and he preached the word and people would get saved. Sometimes he'd go and preach the word and they immediately would try to kill him. Sometimes they would seem to be very interested and then something would happen and just like that, they turn on a dime and throw him in jail. In the city of Lystra, he came to the city of Lystra and he healed the man and they were excited.

Wow. A miracle has happened. They decided that him and Barnabas were two Roman gods that had visited them in the flesh And they began to hail Zeus and Mercury or Apollo, whatever. I forget which two gods they proclaimed that they were, that the people proclaimed, declared that Paul and Barnabas were. Paul and Barnabas had to put a stop to it.

They said, no. No. We're not these Roman gods. We've come to tell you about the true and and living God and all of a sudden, the crowd that just moments ago wanted to worship them just in a very brief time decided to stone them to death or to stone Paul to death, left him outside the city, thought he was dead. Evidently, he wasn't.

He got up and he went to the next city. Guess what? He got to the next city. He did it all over again. He wasn't stoned there.

He was probably beaten or imprisoned there. But up and down and up and down, times he was had plenty of eating, times he had nothing, times he had decent clothes, times he had practically nothing. He said, but I've learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content. God didn't promise if we served him as his children that everything would be easy. What he promised is that he would never what?

Leave us nor forsake us. He promised that if we sought first the kingdom of God, he would add the things to us that we absolutely needed. And he take care of us. He promised us that he's prepared a home in heaven for us and it only gets better from here. But Christians go through the good times and their bad times just like everybody else.

And as I mentioned this morning, I used the illustration of golf when you take a golf club and you hit a golf ball. It hardly ever goes where you want it to go. And then when you get there, sometimes it's worse than you had originally thought. You're right behind a tree. Sometimes you hit it out in the middle of fairway and it's sitting up pretty.

Sometimes, you hit it in the middle of the fairway which rarely happens to me but it's sitting in a divot and you still can't get a good swing at the ball. Sometimes, you hit a real long drive and it bounces just three feet too far and drops into the, what do they call it thing? The sand. Bunker. Yeah, whatever.

And that's why life is sometimes. Sometimes, you think you're doing everything right and boom. It explodes on you. Sometimes, we know why things went wrong because we did it. But we're going to have our ups and downs but we've got to learn to play the ball where it lies.

Wherever it lands in life, that's where we have to go from. Go back and say, well, I wish I hadn't put on so much weight. My blood pressure wasn't so high or my my disc in my back hadn't herniated because I hadn't played golf when I shouldn't have which was part of my problem. And go back and but but but we can't can't go back and change those things. We can't stop the person who ran into the back of our car and messed up our neck or we can't go back and change the mind of a friend that betrayed us and got mad at us and left us and we family member.

We we can't we can't back go back and change those things. We have to go on with life where it is. Part of what helped Paul to do that and learned to be content was relying on the Lord. He learned to rely on the Lord. That's what we talked about for the most part in the service this morning.

Paul says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me. He didn't say I can do all things alone and when he said I can do all things, he wasn't talking about moving mountains. He was talking about handling being beaten and left in prison. Or hungry. Or stoned.

As in stoned to death practically. Rejected forgotten He said, I can be content because I've learned that I can handle it with Christ's help and we can. Don't listen to the devil that says you can because you can. You just need to learn to trust in the Lord. And to rely on him.

He is the vine, we are the branches. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. He is our coach, our instructor, our strength, our guide, our father. We just need to listen to the one who knows. Trust him.

Obey his word. Things may go rough at times but it's going to turn out okay. Because he knows what he's talking about. Oftentimes, we don't. In doing so, we must must learn to accept our circumstances.

We must learn first of all, we talked about this morning to accept God's will. We don't necessarily understand God's will all the time. We don't know exactly what he's doing or why he's doing it. Job certainly didn't. Though he had a lot of questions for God and he was hurting, you can read about.

Never lost his faith He never turned on God and he had a lot of lessons to learn like we do. We need to learn to accept God's will. That's why God says in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you that we give thanks. God doesn't make mistakes. My brethren count all joy when you fall into diverse temptations or trials or tests.

Knowing this, the trying of your faith worketh patience. God says, I'm doing a work in you, refining you. If you take wood and hay and you burn it, it poof goes up in smoke. But if you take gold and heat it up, gets rid of the impurities and what you have is a more pure gold in the end. God wants us to come forth as pure gold.

Part of that process is refining us. It's going through the trials of life. Doesn't say that it's always going to be easy. Romans eight twenty eight, he does say that we know all things work together what? For good to them that love the Lord.

Doesn't say everything is good. He said, that he'll take the good things and the bad things and work them together for our benefit and his glory. And he will. We can trust in that. Moving on this evening, I want to get to the point number two under accepting our circumstances and that is not only once we accept the will of God, we must learn also to accept the actions of others.

We must learn to accept the actions of others. You see, we don't live in a vacuum. We live in a world with a lot of other people. We live with family and neighbors and coworkers and in a in a nation and in a rather wicked society getting more immoral and ungodly by the day. Jesus has said that we need to be salt and what?

Salt and light in the dark world. That's why he left us here. He didn't say that he's going to make all the troubles go away or all the bad people go away. What he said is, he wants us to be salt and light and shine brightly for him. That others may see our good works and glorify who?

Our father in heaven. So, we have to learn to deal with others especially when they're wrong. It's easy to deal with them when they're treating us well. It's easy to deal with them when they're right. It's easy to deal with them when they're patting us on the back and showing us love and doing nice things for us and when they're considerate and kind, Jesus said the the publicans and the sinners do that.

Everybody loves their friends. He said, but he told them, I want you to love and pray for your what? Your enemies. Those who do not have your best interest at heart, those who are not considered and kind, those who do not care for God or the things of his word. You need to pray for them.

Because they're sinners like you that need a savior. We need to learn to deal with and accept and forgive others. Every day, nearly every day, somebody's going to say something, do something, especially if you work out in the world To upset you, to hurt you, that's unkind, that's not nice, that's not considerate. Most of the time, it just has to do with people being selfish. Sometimes, it has to do with our faith but usually, it just has to do with people being selfish and not thinking about their neighbor.

Sometimes, we find ourselves guilty. Of acting the same way. People will wrong us. They will do it often. Sometimes unintentionally, sometimes very intentionally.

We have to learn to go on to let go of those things, to let go of those hurt, to let go of those offenses, and have a forgiving spirit towards those who have wronged us Matthew eighteen twenty one and twenty two. I'll read these verses for you. It says, then came Peter to Jesus and said, Lord, how often or often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times? Peter thought he was being very generous. How, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother who offends me, who who wrongs me, who mistreats me, who who doesn't keep his word, who who doesn't give back what I lend him, who, you know, and you go ahead, add whatever you want to the list.

Should I forgive him seven times? You know Jesus's response. Many of you do. Jesus says, 70 times seven. Now, does that mean that Jesus was saying, you need to keep count and when you get to 491, you don't have to forgive him anymore.

No. He was using a large number to make a point. If if you're married to somebody or you work with somebody every day, don't keep track. You will go over four ninety, okay? That's not the point.

The point is, don't keep track. Just keep on what? Just keep on forgiving. Keep on forgiving. Because if you don't, It's going to ruin you your testimony and make it hard to live with other people because this happens to us all the time He said, just keep on forgiving.

Ephesians four thirty one and thirty two says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. In other words, get rid of that anger, that bitterness that's in your heart, let it go. Don't allow hurtful, mean, evil things to come out of your mouth in anger, get rid of that malice that's eating at your heart. And instead, Jesus says, and be you kind one to another, tender hearted. That means soft hearted towards other people.

Even the ones that aren't soft hearted towards you Be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. You know, is there anybody that has wronged you to the extent that you have wronged God? The answer to that is no. There's not another person we come across with that has wronged us to the extent that we have wronged our creator.

And yet he did what? He forgave us. He made a way to forgive us. He sent his son to die for us when we were yet what? Sinners.

He paved the way for our forgiveness out of love when we were yet his enemies. He didn't wait for us to come to him. Instead, he came what? To us. You know, that's that's a good lesson to think about.

If somebody has wronged you and it's something that you cannot just let go, should you wait for them to come to you or should you go to them? I think we probably ought to follow Christ's example and go to them. A lot of times we wait for them to come to us. You know, a lot of times they don't even know they've offended us Sometimes, they don't care but a lot of times, they just don't know and we're steward and we're angry We have to learn to forgive and accept the actions of others by learning to forgive and move on Romans twelve seventeen and following, it says, recompense no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place under wrath for his written vengeance is mine. I will repay, say it the Lord. What does God say? God says, vengeance is mine. I will repay.

You get out of the way. And you let me do my business and you do yours. What is ours? Ours is to show the love of Christ. To go on and not allow the hurts and offenses of others to hold us back or to make us bitter.

To have a forgiving spirit and not to seek revenge that is contrary to human nature but it's right because it's God's nature We must release others from any obligation to us and any respect for their actions toward us and thereby release ourselves from the anger and bitterness which hold us cap when we refuse to forgive. Let me read that one more time. We must release others from any obligation to us and any respect for their actions toward us and thereby release ourselves from the anger and bitterness which hold us captive when we refuse to forgive. We keep a tally a record of wrongs against other people. Say, well, they owe me.

They did this to me. They did that to me And we hold it over their head. Either outwardly or inwardly. We not only hurt our possible relationship and testimony with them but we also make ourselves bitter people We must learn to release them. So that we can be released from that anger and bitter that will hold us captive The example that I think of I think of two examples in scripture two very different young men On this side, you have a young man named Joseph.

On this side, you have a young man named Absalom. Joseph, the son of Jacob, with 11 brothers, was a godly young man, not a perfect young man but a godly young man. And thanks to that, and the special treatment of his father the coat of many colors his brothers began to despise him. To the point that they decided to kill him. That's what they were going to do.

They left him in a pit to die. But then they decided, no, there's some traders coming. We'll sell him instead. I guess that made them feel a little bit better in their conscience that they sold him rather than killed him even though they probably didn't expect him to live anyway. Didn't really care.

But Joseph went off to Egypt sold as a slave served in the house of Potiphar was a good example was faithful to the Lord, was falsely accused, and thrown in prison. Spent several years in prison. But you don't read anywhere in the story of Joseph. How bitter he became. You don't read about it.

I'm sure he had some struggles but it doesn't seem to be part of his his character. Instead, he just kept focused on what was right there in front of him. Somehow, Joseph, by the grace of God, was able to do what? To forgive his brothers and he told him so In Genesis 45, let's let's go ahead and turn there. Turn with me to Genesis 45.

Genesis 45. Two things we see in Genesis 45 I want you to notice two things. Joseph's attitude towards his brothers and Joseph's attitude towards God because both of them are involved. Who was it that allowed Joseph to go through that mess? Who was it that gave Joseph dreams that made his brothers jealous?

Who was it? God. Some people get angry with God but remember as we read this morning in Romans, he is the potter, we are the what? Play. Who are we to get mad at the potter for what he does?

Don't we trust him? Evidently, Joseph did because he didn't seem to be angry with God. And then second, notice the attitude toward his brothers. Genesis 45 beginning in verse five. Now, therefore, Joseph speaking to his brothers, he says, now therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither for God did send me before you to preserve life.

For these two years hath the famine been in the land, yet there are five years to which there shall neither be earring nor harvest and God sent me before you to preserve our posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So, now it was not you that sent me hither but God and he hath made me a father to pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Joseph said to his brothers, you know something, I have forgiven you. Had they asked for his forgiveness? Not yet.

He had already done what? He had already forgiven them where? In his heart. He had released them. And he had learned to trust in the will of who?

In the will of God and we see both of those things in this passage. Both of those things. Joseph is a shining example. How to forgive and how to move on and trust the Lord. How would you feel if you had been in his shoes?

Human nature would have said, I'm going to get back. Joseph forgave. On the other side over here, you have Absalom. Absalom's, one of David's sons, had a sister named Tamar, if I remember correctly. Tamar was taken advantage of by a half brother of hers named Amnon.

He forced himself upon her. David found out about it but it doesn't seem that David did a whole lot about it. Absalom became enraged. His sister was defiled. His sister had been mistreated.

His sister had been wrong. Was he wrong? To be angry? The Bible says, be you angry and what? Not.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. I don't think he was wrong. To be angry for his sister but it's what he did. With that anger. That was the problem.

You see, we can either deal with anger or anger is going to deal with and consume us and that's what happened. He wasn't willing to forgive his brother. No. He plotted and planned and killed his brother. He wasn't willing to forgive his father.

No, he plotted and he planned and he betrayed his father. Send him on the run the most terrible thing and sad thing about the entire story of Absalom is the very thing that he became bitter about. He became. You see, he was angry at Amnon for having forced himself upon his sister. When David fled from the palace, when Absalom was coming to kill him, David left some of his concubines, wives of lesser degree.

Servant wives in the palace. When Absalom got there, he lined them up in public and he defiled each one of them. He became the very thing that he hated. His unwillingness to forgive made him bitter. His bitterness consumed him.

He ended his life hanging by his proud hair from a tree limb. As Joab threw darts through his body. And thus land ended the life of Absalom. Both of these men suffered injustices. One himself, the other for his sister.

They dealt with them in very different ways. One of them went on with life and succeeded and served the Lord. The other died betraying his father and ignorant. Because he let his bitterness consume him. Sad to say, some very bad things have happened to a lot of people.

Some of them when they were very young and nobody would debate that they were bad and they were wicked and they were hurtful and they were offensive But you don't have to allow those things to define you and consume you and eat you up inside and destroy you. God and Jesus Christ can deliver you from that hurt. And enable you to have a forgiving We must learn to accept the actions of others. Have a forgiving spirit towards them. And move on.

As Jesus hung on the cross, he cried, father, forgive them. For they know not what they do I have to decide if I want to go to my next point or if I want to end here tonight because my next point is going to take about another twenty minutes. Some will leave it for next Sunday morning. But as we close the service tonight have two questions They are this, Have you come to Jesus and accepted his offer of salvation? For when he was hanging on that cross and he said, father, forgive them.

For they know not what they do. He wasn't just talking about the people that put the nails to his hands that day or were jeering at him from the ground. I believe he was talking about me. He forgave me before I ever knew him. He forgave me knowing that one day, I would humble myself before him with repentant heart and receive that forgiveness Jesus wants to take away your sin your guilt.

He wants to give you eternal life. As he hung there on that cross, he was dying there. Have you received his forgiveness? Have you accepted his forgiveness? In your stead.

If you haven't, I beg of you to do so. No amount of good works, no amount of going to church, no amount of rituals and rights, baptisms, and communions, and anything else is going to take away your sins. Only the blood of Christ shed. In your behalf. The second thing is this, as we close this evening, I'm going change my invitation hymn.

The sing Nothing between my soul and my savior. Is there anything between your soul and your savior tonight? A lot of times, the problem isn't with your attitude towards Christ. The problem is with your attitude towards somebody else that is affecting your relationship with Christ. You see, God says, I can't forgive you fully until you learn to do what?

To forgive others. We can't experience the full joy and blessing of God's forgiveness in our life if we're unwilling to forgive our brother, our sister, our neighbor, our friend, our fellow brother, sister in Christ. If there's bitterness in your heart, if there's anger, if there's a lack of forgiving spirit towards someone. Christ can help you to forgive them. No matter what they've done.

Christ can help you to release them and move on with your life. He can do that. He did that for us. He can help us to do that for others. But we must be willing to admit.

If there's something in our heart towards someone else that we need to fix. And we must be willing if necessary to go see that person and not wait for them to come to us. Get rid of that bitter root that will grab a hold of our heart that will hinder our fellowship with that one in Christ or our testimony with that unsaved neighbor. We must deal with it. We can't let it continue We must learn to forgive so that we can move on.

I ask you this evening. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. Not going to ask you or twist your arm to get you to come forward unless you just want to. But if there's something between your soul and your savior because there is something between you and somebody else. Would you please be willing?

By God's grace to take care of it. You can. And he can release you from that. He can free you and give you joy and peace, and condemnment no matter what the circumstances of life. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord for your word. We thank you Lord for the forgiveness that you have demonstrated toward us and Lord, I pray that we would be willing to forgive others and go on. Lord, I pray that you would help us to know how to. Sometimes, Lord, we just don't know how. Sometimes, Lord, we're just afraid.

We don't know how they're going to respond. Sometimes, Lord, we're afraid they're gonna get angry. Sometimes, Lord, we're afraid they're going to reject us sometimes. We're afraid they're going to go, well, yeah, no, it wasn't me, it was you but Lord, I pray that we would get pass that fear. That we would trust you and Lord, if there's something that we just cannot let go, Lord, that we would go to that person and talk it out.

Lord, help us to be willing to follow the instructions and rely on our savior, our coach. Do it your way. Trust in the Lord with all our heart. Lean not unto our own understanding and all our ways acknowledge you. Lord, you will direct our paths and you won't fail.

Lord, help us, we pray. Help us to clear anything out of our conscience or our heart that doesn't belong there, that you can truly bring revival to our hearts, families, homes, church. You will be glorified in us. In Jesus name, we pray.