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Title: Test Yourselves!
Text: 2 Corinthians 13:5
Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church of Icard, May 28, 2000
Congratulations to each of you who are graduating in the class of 2000.
Today we honor you for your accomplishments.
We also pray that God will bless and guide your lives.
You mean more than you probably realize to your parents, your school, your church, and your community.
Surely by now you have had your fill of tests.
Tests are one of the most frustrating experiences of high school.
Tests that are too hard, or too long, or come too often.
High school students are famous for giving strange answers to test questions.
Answers like these from a science exam:
Q. Define H2O and CO2.
A. H2O is hot water and CO2 is cold water.
Q.
What is the difference between oxygen and hydrogen?
A. Oxygin is pure gin.
Hydrogin is gin and water.
Q.
What are the four seasons?
A. The four seasons are salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q.
What is the main cause of dust?
A. One of the main causes of dust is janitors.
Q. Describe the spinal column.
A. The spinal column is a long bunch of bones.
The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom.
(1).
We can laugh over these answers but we all know that there is a lot of stress connected with being tested.
Sometimes the stress can turn into strong anger toward school and teachers.
There's an old story about a student in graduate school and his final test in a large class taught by an eccentric teacher.
He was majoring in ornithology - the study of birds.
The professor who was giving the test had indicated that the test could be over anything in the entire field of ornithology.
The student had studied for weeks.
He had poured over numerous text books.
He had studied charts, pictures, and diagrams of birds.
He had learned everything he could about the history of various species and their habits of feeding, mating, and flight.
On the day of the test the students came into class, cleared their desks, and took out their pencils.
The professor handed out the test.
It was only one piece of paper.
On it was a sketch of one pair of birds feet.
Just the feet.
The question was: "Name this bird."
The student's mind went blank.
He fussed and fumed.
Finally he picked up his test sheet and made his way past all the other students and approached the professor who was sitting at his desk.
He said, "This is the most ridiculous test I've ever been given.
I've studied for weeks on the history, development, and behavior of thousands of birds.
And all you do is give me a pair of feet to name.
This is a stupid test and you are a stupid teacher."
And with that he tore up the test page and threw it at the professor.
The professor was shocked and offended.
He focused his eyes on the student and said, "Young man, what's your name?"
The student pulled up his pants legs and said, "You tell me!"
We grow tired of having to prove ourselves over and over again at school.
We grow weary of being tested and graded for first this and then that.
Some high school graduates will never go back to school because they don't ever want to be tested again.
The Bible has an interesting approach to test-taking.
The Bible says that we should test ourselves!
Imagine that!
Instead of getting out of test-taking the Scriptures repeatedly tell us to put ourselves to the test.
2 Cor 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith.
Test yourselves.
Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!
Here the Apostle Paul is calling us into self-examination.
Testing yourself is one of the great marks of maturity.
The most important test results you get will never be the grades you get on a school report card.
The most important grade is the one you get when you test yourself.
Test yourselves!
Paul had in mind a specific kind of test.
It was a test of faith.
Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!
Notice that Paul was asking NOT WHAT YOU KNOW but WHAT'S INSIDE OF YOU.
The real test is finding out what you're made of.
So .. what's inside of you?
Well, for starters, you're made up of emotions.
The teen years are notorious for being a cauldron of emotions.
We've witnessed the dark side of teen age emotions in the recent school shootings in Littleton, Colorado and Conyers, Georgia.
It's easy for teenagers to regard emotions as uncontrollable and overwhelming.
Logic and ideas seem to count for little when matched up against feelings.
Frankly, teens are often very self-centered about their feelings and act as though their feelings matter more than anything else.
In the play, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, by William Inge tells a story of an unhappy, quarreling family in Oklahoma in the early 1920's.
This family - the Rubin Flood family - all were insecure, fearful and continually engulfed in self-pity.
The daughter Reenie Flood accepted a blind date to a dance at the country club which was being sponsored by a snobbish socialite family in town.
Reenie's date was Sammie Goldenbloom who was an unwanted orphan.
But Sammie was a sensitive boy and a very caring date.
Reenie Flood was elated that a person could care so much for her as did Sammie.
She had danced all evening with Sammie and suddenly realized that no other boy had asked to dance with her.
She was concerned that Sammie would think that she was not popular.
She decided that she would deceive Sammie into thinking she had been dancing with others.
She was actually hiding out with a girlfriend.
While Sammie stood alone, the snobbish socialite sponsor walked over to him and told him how little she thought of him - and for Jews for that matter.
Completely humiliated and dejected, Sammie looked for Reenie.
Unable to find her, he left.
He later committed suicide.
When Reenie learned what happened, she was devastated.
The one chance she had to be loved was taken from her because of her own insecurities and desire to LOOK popular.
She had so focused on her image that she had failed to see the one who loved her for who she was.
Her conclusion of the matter was as follows: "I've always thought I was the only person in the world who had any feelings at all." (2).
Teenagers are famous for over rating their emotions, as well as not regarding the feelings of others.
You have emotions but you are not your emotions.
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