Sermon Tone Analysis

TABLE MANNERS                              I Corinthians 11:17-29   

Now, you and I have a way of moving through  life  as  long  as  everything is slick and smooth and clean, and we  almost  enjoy  the  status  quo.

We have an expression that goes like  this:  "Don't  make  waves."

And  we'll move through life being basically dependent  upon  ourselves  and  indepen- dent of the Lord until trouble comes.

Trouble.

The Music Man would sing, "We've Got  Trouble."

We've  got  trouble  right here in Houston, in River  City,  in  America,  in  the  world,  we've  got trouble.

The old  spiritual  cries  out,  "Nobody  knows  the  trouble  I've  seen."

Nobody knows but Jesus.

Trouble comes.

And most of us run from  trouble.

Nobody  here  would  say, "I enjoy trouble."

But let me tell you  something.

When  the  Holy  Spirit brings trouble into your  life  and  trouble  into  my  life,  the  trouble comes to teach us something about where we are and  about  whether  we  are truly dependent upon Him.

Or, as far as  function  is  concerned,  we're independent of Him.

When trouble comes to a life, trouble is like a  knife,  like  a  surgeon's    I        t 4USt scalpel, tha  i    opens you up aild opens me up and -it makes us 'look  at ourselves whether we want to or not.

That's the  message  that  trouble brings.

Trouble exposes weakness.

It  exposes  the  weakness  of   our  circumstances.

Let economic trouble come, let us  lose  our  job,  let  us  have  unexpected expenses  that  we  never  could  count  on  until  suddenly   that   hundred dollars or five hundred  dollars  or  a  thousand  dollars  or  ten  thousand dollars or whatever it is we put aside  for  a  rainy  day,  let  that  rainy day come and let  all  of  our  resources  be  depleted  and  we're  down  to zilch, zero, nothing.

Whereas before we  said,  "O,  Lord,  I  am  leaning upon You, I am totally dependent upon You."

But you knock  the  prop  out from under us;  you  take  the  crutch  away,  our  economic  stability,  our status, our stance; and we  see  we're  not  really  totally  dependent  upon Him but actually we were propped up  over  here  and  there  was  sort  of  a rea'l dependency upon the a'lmigihty dolillar and  upon  our  economic  life- style.

Trouble does that.

Trouble reveals circumstances like nothing else.

Trouble  also  reveals the weakness in character.

Why, if you would  study  all  the  lives  of  the Apostles, you would say, "Which  one  of  the  twelve  had  the  most  stuff?

Who was Mr.  Macho?"

We'd  all  make  a  hundred,  it  was  Simon  Peter.

Strong, big, courageous.

He didn't know the  meaning  of  fear,  He  would back down before no man.

Ah, but trouble came.

Wel 1 , when i t f i rst came there in the garden of Gethsemane, he  pulled  out  a  sword;  he  said, "Who wants to be first?

Just come right on, help yourself.

I'll  take care of my Lord."

He had the sword, you'd  say,  "That's  my  man  Peter!"

But then Jesus was arrested.

The trail was going on.

All  the  other Apostles, they'd taken off, they were in hiding.

Peter  was  alone  and warming his hands by that  fire  on  warm,  middle  ground;  all  of  a  sudden  we see big,  courageous,  strong,  fearless  Peter,  we  see  him  without  the  Lord, we see him now as a coward.

I  would  never  have  guessed   Peter  would end up as a coward.

Nobody  would  believe  it  except  when  trouble  came.

Trouble exposes the  weakness  in  your  character  and  exposes  the  weakness in our character like nothing else you could imagine.

Let  trouble   come and  you'll  see  what  you,  you'll  see  what  I,  you'll  see  what  we  are really made  of.

You'll  see  what  we're  really  depending  upon.

Character is revealed, weakness of character is uncovered.

That's  what   trouble does, it is that knife that opens us up.

Now, how do we respond to trouble?

Now, some of  us  respond  and  we  get bitter.

I talk to people all  the  time  and  you  bring  up  a  subject  and they'll bring up something  that  happened  a  while  back  or  the  other  day or  last  year  or  twenty  years  ago  and  you  see  the  bitterness   that's coming out.

They've never recovered.

From  a  slight,  from  an  abuse, from a lost opportunity, from  a  friend  who  let  them  down,  from  a  part- nership that didn't work out, from  some  position  or  status  or  some  event in life; whether it was a marriage or a  child  or  a  family  or  whatever  it was, they have grown bitter about it all.

Soren Kierkegaard, a  theolog  of  another  generation,  tells  about  the  man who  gave  every  indication  of  being  a  genuine  Christian  until  his  son died.

At the funeral service, he stood  up  and  he  shook  his  fist  toward heaven and said, "You did this to  me  after  all  I've  done  for  You?"

Only                                      - 5 -   trouble revealed, revealed that flaw in his character.

He  had  the  idea  of being a Christian  was  doing  something  for  God  and  God  in  turn  doing  something for you.

And he  never  understood  that  to  be  a  Christian  is  to  be a son of God and not to be an employee or not to be a slave.

Only  trouble does that.

How do you respond  to  trouble  is  a  real  test  of  what  your  relationship with the Lord really is.

Does it make  you  bitter?

Or  does  it  make  you better?

Do you grow, does  it  build  you  up,  does  it  slow  you  down,  slow me down, long enough to see, really, what's life all about?

Trouble reveals  weakness  in  circumstance,  weakness   in   character,   and   trouble will either make you bitter or it'll make you better.

The Apostle Paul in  11  Corinthians,  chapter  number  11,  he  lists  all  the things that happened to  him.

You  ought  to  read  them.

You  think  you  got trouble?

Read about Paul.

Shipwrecked  a  couple  of  times,  bitten  by  a snake,  whipped  many  times,  put  in  prison  several  times,  disenfranchised by h4,& own pl-opi e-.

The churches d4,dn't wa,-.t to s-,e him come beca,--se  he would bring the truth of God before them.

The  Jews  wanted   to   have nothing to do with him,  he  was  a  turncoat  from  the  Sanhedrin  as  one  of their  leaders,  the  Romans  were  fearful  of  him,  that   he   would   bring revolution.

He  said  nobody  knows  the  trouble  I've  seen  and  he  lists  all  of   his troubles, you should read the list, it  goes  on  and  on  through  the  end  of chapter 11 and he has to  use  a  part  of  chapter  12  to  get  it  all  down.

But do you know  what  the  Apostle  Paul  said?

He  said,  "All  the  troubles                                      - 6 -  that have come to me, I  look  upon  these  troubles  as  the  hand  of  God."

And  he  talked  about  that  thorn  of  the  flesh,  incidentally,  in   that context.

What does that mean?

That  means  that  when  trouble  came  to  the life of the Apostle Paul,  he  said,  "God's  trying  to  show  me  something.

God's getting my attention."

Does God have your attention today?

Does He  have  your  full  attention this morning?

Trouble comes, we can get bitter or we can get better.

Now, in the middle of trouble, do you  know  what  our  response  usually  is?

We cry out for deliverance.

We say,  "Oh,  Lord,  take  me  out  of  this mess.

Lord,  deliver me from this mess."

But  when  the  Holy   Spirit brings trouble into a life, so many times He  brings  it  into  your  life  or into my life in so many different forms;  not  for  us  to  be  delivered,  oh no, for us to be developed.

The Holy Spirit  said,  "This  did  not  happen to you, this circumstance you're in  today  is  not  so  you  could  cry  out, 'O, Lord, save me, take me out  of  this.

Boy,  just  heal  me,  restore  me, life me up, let me know my old  station,  my  old  ways,  oh,  I  want  to  be delivered."'

God can deliver but so many times  when  trouble  comes,  He  does  not  bring that trouble in your or allow that trouble to  come  for  you  or  for  me  to be delivered but he allows that  trouble  to  come  for  us  to  be  developed in and through that  trouble  and  that's  how  deliverance  comes.

It  makes us grow, it makes us see that our  life  has  to  be  totally  dependent  upon Him and  not  upon  anything  or  anybody  else,  any  measure  of  health  or                                      - 7 -   happiness  or  prosperity  or  stuff  you  can  see  and  feel  and  weight  and  taste of this world.

We can see when trouble comes, it lays us open.

Now, some of us  when  trouble  comes,  we  are  cut  open,  trouble  cuts.

You know what we do?

We just  hold  together  the  place  where  we've  been  cut and we run away from trouble, we run  away  from  it  and  we  get  bitter  over here and we say, "O, Lord, deliver me from it."

We  don't   understand that the Lord  says,  "Face  that  trouble  head  on,  I'm  teaching  you  some- thing, I want  to  develop  you,  I  want  you  to  be  totally  dependent  upon Me, upon the Lord Jesus Christ."

Trouble.

Trouble.

Bobby  was  in  the  third  grade.

He  was  a  smart  little guy, he studied,  he  was  consciencious;  well,  you  could  even  say  he  was the teacher's pet.

You couldn't help but like him.

He ... he had  just that  little glow about him.

He  was  mischievous   enough   and   sincere enough and repentant enough.