My Way or the Most High's Way
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Every heard Frank Sinatra’s “My Way?”
Anyone like that song? Anyone hate it?
August 2016, Scott Meslow wrote an article in GQ: Taking a Stand Against Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’
He HATES Frank Sinatra’s iconic song! Why?
Scott Meslow: "My Way" is a song that celebrates individuality in such a thuddingly generic, white-bread manner that any self-important fathead can take it on as a personal anthem. It is a song designed to appeal to egomaniacs...
If you’ve never heard it, here are some lyrics:
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself then he has naught
Not to say the things he truly feels
And not the words of someone who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way
Scott Meslow: It's a tribute to a very specific and old-fashioned definition of masculinity: the kind of man who's so smugly confident in his own unflagging rightness that he has no interest in considering anybody else.
He really hates that song! Know who else does? Frank Sinatra!
Tina Sinatra: "He didn't like it. That song stuck and he couldn't get it off his shoe. He always thought that song was self-serving and self-indulgent."
He said this before performing it
Frank Sinatra: "And of course, the time comes now for the torturous moment—not for you, but for me.”
I guess you might see the irony
Sinatra was controlled by a song that talks about how he can’t be controlled!
That’s the thing, being stubborn, selfish, narcissistic leads us to do things “our way”
That often leads to accomplishments and great stories… but those often lead to horrible ends
That’s why this song is used to portray the lives of men like Don Draper in Mad Men, Henry Hill in Goodfellas and Vito Spitafore in The Sopranos
Because people who only want to do things “my way” usually end up bitter, suffering and alone...
YouVersion: My Way or the Most High’s Way
We’re in Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Last week, Paul talked about Jesus offering wisdom, hope, power and authority
Those things offer life
And now Paul examines what we were before Jesus: DEAD
My way leads to death
My way leads to death
Scripture tells us a lot about unsaved people
The Bible uses words like blind, slave, sick and lost...
None of those are good things
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This “death” can mean a lot of different things
Perhaps we were dead because our lives were empty
Perhaps it means it literally leads to death
Think about overdoses, drunken accidents, murder, war...
But there’s another type of death that’s even worse: spiritual death
Charles Spurgeon: “The most vital part of man’s personality – the spirit – is dead to the most important factor in life – God.”
Leon Wood: “Not in a moral sense, nor a mental sense, but in a spiritual sense, poor humanity is dead, and so the word of God again and again most positively describes it.”
It’s because before Jesus, we chose to follow a different leader
The Prince of the power of the air - AKA Satan
That is an important title
Prince indicates authority
“The air” is indicative of the heavenly or spiritual realm
That means Satan works on us in a spiritual way
So God and Satan both work in the spiritual realm? Yes!
And Satan’s work is to lead you to death
Let’s see how that works:
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Those spiritual attacks of Satan end up being lived out physically in our flesh...
Satan’s spiritual attacks are manipulative, and appeal to our own bodies and minds
You might say, Satan uses spiritual things to get us to do it “our way”
My way is paved with the flesh
My way is paved with the flesh
We often think of sin as something Satan specifically tries to get us to do...
He tries to steer you to steal, or make you angry, or get you to lust...
It’s not so much that Satan wants you to do a specific thing, its about breaking you away from God’s direction
The Hebrew word for sin is Khata - means “to miss the mark.”
Much like the kids this morning, they missed the mark
When they needed to go right, the goal wasn’t to get them to go left
The goal was to get them to go ANY direction that wasn’t right!
For example, raising children
6 Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
It doesn’t say, though shalt not abuse your child
Thou shalt not teach your kids to lie
Thou shalt not neglect your children
For this, Scripture doesn’t give a specific list of sins we shouldn’t do...
Because it’s much simpler to tell us what we should do!
When you give directions to your house, do you say, “Hit stop sign, don’t turn left or go straight… then 4 houses on the left, it’s none of those!”
No, you say, “Hit stop sign, turn right, we’re the fifth house on the left...”
You may point out common mistakes - “If you hit the gas station you went too far.”
But you’re not trying to point out everything that is not your house, just the things you need to get there.
God does the same with us!
We raise our kids in a Godly way, and we’re good!
Anything you do outside of that, is missing the mark!
In other words, it’s sin...
Without God’s directions, we tend to wander off course
There’s 360 degrees in a circle
If you’re supposed to go dead north, there’s 359 other degrees you may wander if you’re not specifically following God
Your actions will try to appease something
It will either be your Spirit, or your flesh...
If it’s your way and not God’s way, then it’s got to be your flesh
Your way, by itself is ugly, dangerous, hurtful, damaging and deadly
Now watch this:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
It has been said that the entire gospel story can be summed up in 2 words
It’s the two that start verse 4: BUT GOD
There’s man and sin and everything that goes along with that… BUT GOD
God creates an alternative, a correction and a propitiation
And that carries us away from the death that OUR WAY brings...
The Most High’s way leads to life
The Most High’s way leads to life
It is that BUT GOD that makes your story possible!
If you’re saved, you have a BUT GOD moment
Mine was in the hills of Wyoming at a retreat I didn’t want to be at
I didn’t want talk to God, I wanted to sit in a little selfish sinful hole all by myself
In one moment He pulled me out and said, “Get walking...” and I surrendered to Him right then and there
I was doing it my way, BUT GOD decided it was time to tell me to do it His way
The death I had pursued changed into a pursuit of life for me
Because God intervened...
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Interesting that God chooses to fight selfishness and sin with love and grace...
We would choose a path that pleases the flesh and leads to destruction and death
But God responds with mercy and grace...
The Most High’s way is paved by grace
The Most High’s way is paved by grace
It all comes down to God’s love which is insanely powerful
Sometimes we twist this concept: we think God loves us because we’re so lovable...
Actually, God’s love is so powerful that He extends it to the unlovable!
It would make sense then, that we should stop trying so hard to make ourselves lovable...
It says God didn’t wait for us to change, He loved us BEFORE we changed...
We have to get in our heads that our salvation does not come from us!
That’s important to grasp because believing that causes a very specific problem:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We have a tendency to want to take credit for things...
In the NBA we have this forever ongoing debate… who is the GOAT?
Is it Michael Jordan or LeBron James?
Some throw in Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell
How do you prove it? It’s always about stats and accolades...
Who won more championships? MVP’s? Who scored more points, had more steals or rebounds?
We look at their works to determine who should boast that they are the greatest of all time...
My way is based on my works
My way is based on my works
When we see something, our minds instantly goes to where the credit goes...
When we forget that God is the author of our salvation, we are at risk of boasting about ourselves...
I’ve been on 15 missions trips, read through the Bible 45 times, been a deacon, and elder and led 2,000 people to Christ!
Yep, and you still needed Jesus to save you because you weren’t worthy...
There’s another side to boasting though
When things goes well, my way leads to boasting...
On the other hand, when things go bad, my way leads to blaming...
When I worked in the paper mill, that was one of my biggest struggles...
There were all sorts of systems and practices and political games…
I’m sure most of you have seen that in your jobs
When something broke or an idea didn’t work, the first thought was hardly ever something productive
No one thought, how do we prevent this from happening again...
Or is there a better way to do this...
Or is there something wrong with our culture...
What was our first thought?! Who messed up this time? Whose fault is it?!
When they found someone - anyone - who could be blamed, they were punished
Days off, write ups, naming the equipment after them...
Then in the minds of management, the problem was fixed
Don’t worry guys! We found the person to blame, they’re fired, back to work!
That’s because it’s human nature to point fingers...
Remember what they say, if you point your finger there’s three more pointed back at you...
We’re all about assigning credit or blame
If you’re in a bad situation, must be your sin!
You’ve become successful, must be that you’re a good person!
For us, we’re worried about ourselves and what we have done...
But what about God?
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Your works lead to nothing good, good works only come from God!
When you follow that path of flesh, YOUR flesh, you end up in sin and death...
But you are GOD’S WORKMANSHIP!
He MADE YOU, that is HIS work!
And when you are connected to Him and following His lead, that’s when good stuff starts to come out
My way is based on my works...
The Most High’s way is based on His works
The Most High’s way is based on His works
If we measured everything by my work, it only leads to death and destruction...
But when we measure things by God’s works, everything leads to life and holiness and good works!
But what it all comes down to, is that God deserves the glory
Let me show you what I mean:
2 years ago, a surgeon named Dr. Odendaal came upon a motorcycle accident
The victim had a collapsed lung and would die in minutes
To relieve the tension, he borrowed a pocketknife and a turkey baster and saved his life
If you can save a life with a pocketknife and a turkey baster, you’re a good surgeon!
If Beethoven composed his 9th symphony almost completely deaf, he’s a good musician
If the Egyptians build the enormous pyramids without machinery, they were good engineers
If God can use people who were dead in their sin, He’s a good God
Look inside God’s toolbox for a second
His instruments are flawed, broken and imperfect people
And yet, what He does with us is remarkable
And so you have a choice and you need to ask yourself a question today
And it’s truly a matter of life and death...
Ask yourself: am I going to do things my way, or the Most High’s way...
Prayer
Prayer
