PREACHED:
OL,
“POWER
TO BECOME”
INTRODUCTION:
1& “The Power to Become!”
A. What
a moving statement!
1. Generates all manner of emotions:
a. Apprehension, eagerness, desire, joy,
sobriety…
2& I like Tape Delays…
A. I may be a bit strange, but in the past, I
really enjoyed watching the Dallas Cowboy games that were tape delayed.
1. I don’t enjoy the nail biting. I somehow seem
to be able to reconcile the loss if I know the score ahead of time and I can
sit back and enjoy the game if I know they have already won.
B.
3& What a comfort it is to know that we are
not alone in our struggles to live the Christian life!
A. Matt
28:20
II Tim 4:16,17
Matt
B. The first passage I committed to memory
after I started preaching was Phil4:11-13.
1. “Not that I am speaking of being in
need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how
to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I
have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I
can do all things through him strengthens me.”
C. Paul told the Corinthians, “We are
God’s fellow-workers…” (I
Cor 39).
4& I Have the Power to become the man or woman
that God wants me to be!
A. How?
1. Think about each letter in the two words, “I-C-A-N.”
DICUSSION:
1$ Visualize an IMAGE!
A. Visualization
is a powerful tool.
1. Professional golfers visualize…
2. Picture yourself, not as you are, but as
you want to be!
B. Years ago, Jerry Levin was taken hostage in
war-torn
1. He said that he willed himself to
think only pleasant thoughts…
2. He visualized his wife and children, his favorite recreation, opera…
3. He concentrated on those he knew who had
suffered and conquered…
4. He remembered that Beethoven didn’t allow
his deafness to defeat him, and meditated on the composer’s words:
“Life
is a gift, as the word is a gift from a generous God. As our vital strength is
a gift, I will not submit. I shall have the courage of my endurance. Where my
body fails, my spirit will dominate, my heart will create. I shall speak out of
my silence. I shall shout! I shall sing! Man, help yourself! For you are able!”
5. Levin said that though he was blind-
folded, he saw what he needed no eyes to see. He was with his imagination!
C. A
fella climbed a greased pole at a fair.
1. He got $50 for it.
2. He said he was able to do it for 2 reasons:
a. He visualized himself doing it -
He had already
done it before -
3. His brother-in-law tried it and failed
because he was ignorance of the secret of success:
a. He wasn’t willing to exert the energy, for
you see to climb that greased pole, you had to climb twice as fast as you slide
down.
D. Charles Allen, in his marvelous
book, God’s Psychiatry, tells of a teacher who had a unique method of
instruction.
1. He told his students to think of their minds
as a blank motion picture screen and to flash on that screen something good
they wanted to happen to them, and then take it off the screen. They were to
repeat the process until the image became clear in their minds.
a. Then he would tell them to go to work to
make the picture a reality!
1) Phil 4:8. “Finally brothers,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if
there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
2$ COMMIT yourself!
A. Jesus was committed to the will of the
Father before he ever came to this old earth!
1. Phil 2:5-8.
a. Note the words, “…Made himself
nothing…”
B. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL: “One of the
most infallible signs of true conversions which I know of is couched in these
words – ‘Lord, what will you have me to do?’ This unfeigned and vehement desire
to know the will of the Lord in order to do it, is, in my humble opinion, the
surest and most general and comprehensive sign, proof and pledge of
regeneration.”
C. “Do all the good you can, by all the
means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the
times you can, to all the people you can, for as long as you can.”
D. ABRAHAM LINCOLN LOVED TO SAY, “Whatever
you are, be a good one.”
E. DWIGHT MOODY chastised his detractors who
referred to him as “Crazy Moody” because of his commitment to his beliefs and
said, “There’s a class very much afraid of being called ‘peculiar’.”
3$ Let your commitment move
you to AFFIRMATION!
A. “To put into words positively and with
conviction.”
B. There
is a power in audible conviction!
1. Thing of the power of the words, “And
God said…”
C. Jesus openly affirmed what he was going to
do!!
1. “Destroy this temple, and I will raise
it again in three days!”
D. When Mark Spitz was 15 years old, he
said he was going to win 7 Olympic gold medals in swimming. He failed in his
first Olympics by winning only two. But he kept on saying “I’m going to win 7
Olympic gold medals,” and four years later, he win 7 and set 7 world records in
winning them.
1. Does that mean, all you have to do is say
something and it will happen? No, but the affirmation keeps us focused on the
goal!
E. When Margaret Brown first laid eyes
on Alexander Campbell, the told a friend, “That’s the young gentleman
I’m going to marry,” and she did!
4$ Then, finally, NEVER
give up!
A. WINSTON CHURCHILL was once asked to address
a graduating class. He delivered one of the briefest and yet most moving
messages every spoken. His entire speech was these simple words, “Never…
never… never…GIVE UP!”
B. A former middleweight champion, Jake La
Motta, who lost to Sugar Ray Robinson, comically said later that if the fight
had gone one more round, Robinson would have lost. He would have dropped from
exhaustion from hitting him to so many times.
C. Job was blessed because he didn’t give up!
John exhorted Christians not to give up even if they faced death itself!
Paul
never gave up and challenged his readers and listeners to never give up either!
II Tim 4:6-8;Gal 6:9;ICor 9:24.
1. As a child, Wilma Rudolph wore leg
braces for six years because of polio. But because she never gave up, she later
became the fist woman to win 3 gold medals in track and field in the Olympics.
D. Jesus
said, “The one who endures to the ` end
will be saved,” (Matt 10:22)
CONCLUSION:
1Ø You
may never become famous by worldly standards—great athlete, business man or public
figure, but you do have “The Power to Become” a great servant of the Lord by
using the talents and opportunities afforded you by God!
A. Will you become all that God wants you to
be?