OL,12-14-03,PM
I.
People
will do most anything for their moment of fame:
A.
Guiness
Book of World Records –
1.
A woman set a record for throwing a #2 rolling pin –140
feet, 4 inches.
2.
Man ate 63 bananas in 10 minutes.
3.
Another swallowed 225 lives goldfish.
4.
Longest sermon—48 hours, 18 minutes!
a.
Only eight people were left in the assembly at the end of
it.
A.
Even if it means going to the absurd to get it.
1.
One man refused to speak for several years to protest what
he thought were unjust social conditions in America.
a.
It got him on television.
B.
Springs out of the basic need to find a sense of self-worth
and value.
1.
Those of us who were adults in the ‘70’s will remember that
one social critic called that them the “Me Decade.”
a.
But I think we could say that about virtually every decade!
1)
Self-esteem, selfishness, self-service have always been a
basic problem for man.
2)
The negative appeal to ego has been around since Eden!
a)
Eve ate of the forbidden fruit— the devil convinced her it
would make her as smart as God, Gen 3:5
C.
One of John Steinbeck’s early novels was The Winter of Our Discontent:
1.
Story of a New England family in a small town.
a.
Central character—Ethan Hawley:
1)
Harvard Grad—failure!
b.
Ancestral home reminded him of past glory—a glory just out
of his reach.
1)
To regain that glory, he became a grocer, but he went
bankrupt.
c.
In his discontented quest for significance he went so far as
to betray two of his closest friends:
1)
Reported an emigrant who had bought his business as an
illegal, and when the man lost the business, he bought it back for nearly
nothing.
2)
Boyhood friend was an alcoholic—gave him enough money to
drink himself to death so that he could inherit a piece of land he wanted for
his business.
2. Shows the extent to which some will go to find
success and self-worth.
III.
ALL OF US
HAVE FACED OUR “WINTERS OF DISCONTENT.”
A.
Possibly, we wouldn’t go as far as Roger Hawley, but a self-centered
life will usually result in nothing but GUILT AND SUFFERING!
1.
How many people have virtually destroyed their lives and
reputations in a quest for importance and affirmation by others.
B.
Others of us live discontented lives with the inferior sense
that if others really knew us they wouldn’t like us.
C.
Or still again, there are some who long to be lifted from
what they perceive as a drab and unimportant existence.
1.
Feel their life hasn’t really mattered in the grand scheme
of things.
2.
Or mistakes have closed doors that they feel will never be
opened again. What they perceive as “the good life” has passed them by.
a.
And they a life of the futile “If Only’s.”
3.
Or again, they see others receiving their accolades in
athletics or academics and they cry out on the inside:
a.
“Why
can’t I just once in my life be a somebody!”
D.
Kermit the Frog used to sing a little song that illustrates
the “Winter of Discontent.”
“It’s not easy being green,
having to spend each day the color of leaves
when I think it would be nicer
to be red or yellow or gold or
something much more colorful like that.
It’s not easy being green.
You seem to blend in with so many
Other ordinary things—
And people tend to pass you over,
Because you don’t stand out
Like flashing sparkles in the water,
Or stars in the sky.”
1.
I’ve been told that the song was written to illustrate the
plight of under-privileged children who suffer form a deep lack of self-esteem
and low self-worth.
E.
But life’s not always easy:
1.
It’s not easy being young.
It’s not
easy being a parent.
It’s not
easy working in a secular culture.
It’s not
easy being poor.
It’s not
easy being plain in a world that exalts physical beauty.
It’s not
easy not being athletic.
It’s not
easy being average.
It’s not
easy being old.
It’s not
easy being single.
It’s not
easy being unmarried when you want to be married.
Etc.,
Etc., Etc…
A. The woman who annointed Jesus – Luke 7:36-50.
1. Do you see the picture of desperation, guilt and longing for
something better in life!!
a. Life had not been good to this woman and it was
largely a matter of her own wrong decisions.
b. She was not welcome, but she came in
desperation anyway.
c. Respectable Jewish women didn’t let down their
hair, but she had no self-respect.
d. The only thing that she could do was to show
her love and concern for the only One Who could make her life better.
e. Her estimation of herself was merely validated
by Simon with his self-righteous judgment of her and of Jesus.
B. Samaritan
woman at the well -
C. Zacchaeus – Luke 19:1-4.
1.
Small…
Despised…
Wealth
without respect or self-respect
D.
Misfits at Calvary – Isa.
53:12b.
1.
Luke
23:32,33.
a.
One reacted with the crowd in taunting Jesus.
b.
The other responded, v. 40.
V.
JESUS
GIVES MEANING TO THE MISFITS AND HOPE TO THE HOPESS:
1. He commended her in the all for her
contriteness and loving deed!
2. He gave her a significance that no money could
buy:
a. “Your
sins have been forgiven…Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
B. He gave
good news to the Samaritan woman-
B.
He gave purpose to Zacchaeus –
1.
Luke
19:5-10.
1. Luke 23:42,43.
A.
Christianity is not just for the well-adjusted, the very
normal, the people with model lives and model children with a perfect behavior
record…
1. Matt 9:12,13
B.
And we do not overcome our “Winters of Discontent” by
self-actualization or self-acceptance.
1.
Remember Kermit the Frog? He just made up his mind to
accept what he was and live with it:
“But green’s the color of spring,
And green can be cool and friendly like,
Or big like an ocean,
Or important like a mountain,
Or tall like a tree.
When green is all there is to be,
It could make you wonder why—
But why wonder, why wonder—
I am green,
And it’ll do fine—it’s beautiful,
And I think it’s what I wanna be.”
2.
We do need to accept the things that we can’t change like
the color of our skin and our abilities and talents whether limited or great.
a.
But the thing that will make all the difference to give us
peace and contentment in whatever circumstances in which we find ourselves, is
what Jesus does for us!
1) Think about Paul:
a) Paul
the aged
b)
Physical problems
c)
Poor speaker
d)
Rejected by former friends
e)
Disrespected
f)
Falsely accused
g) Deserted in prison
3)
Look at his strength –
II Cor. 3:5,6; 12:8-20; Phil 4:13; Eph 6:10; II Tim
4:16-18