Preventing the Ultimate Robbery

Mark Dunagan
05/29/16 - Sunday Morning

Preventing the Ultimate Robbery

How heightened would your awareness be, and how protective would you become of yourself and your family if you knew you were constantly being stalked and cased in order to be robbed?  

• “See to it no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men” (Colossians 2:8).
• “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind” (Colossians 2:18).

Why Do I Need to Start Now?

• “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, because the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

As You Move Up the Ladder

“The higher you go in life, the fewer people there are to offer honest feedback or restrain your unpleasant traits.  So it is best to learn those habits of self-restraint, including emotional self-restraint, at any early age” (The Road to Character, David Brooks, p. 111).  How much better off are those who never resent or tire of good parental advice.  I was young once too and there were many who gave me honest and needed advice. May every one of us be grateful for that time in life. 

Admire the Right People

• Hebrews chapter 11 is filled with people who model admirable choices.
• “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things” (Philippians 4:9).
• “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7).

“The work of the Roman biographer Plutarch is based on the premise that the tales of the excellent can lift the ambitions of the living.  In 1943, Richard Winn Livingstone wrote, ‘One is apt to think of moral failure as due to weakness of character:  more often it is due to an inadequate ideal” (Brooks p. 107).  “In one study, middle school girls were asked who they would most like to have dinner with.  Jennifer Lopez came in first, Jesus Christ came in second, and Paris Hilton third.  The girls were then asked which of the following jobs they would like to have.  Nearly twice as many said they would rather be a celebrity’s personal assistant – for example Justin Bieber than president of Harvard” (p. 7).   So don’t let Satan give you an inferior role model to admire, and then waste year after year admiring and trying to emulate an example that may actually be less mature that you are right now.  Do not allow your spiritual enemy to trick  you into being "inspired" by someone of poor character.

Be and Remain Humble

• “With the humble is wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2).
• “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor” (Proverbs 29:23).
• “You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

“We have, the psychologist Daniel Kahernman writes, an ‘almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.  Humility is the awareness that there’s a lot you don’t know and that a lot of what you think you know is distorted or wrong.  This is the way humility leads to wisdom.  Montaigne once wrote, ‘We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we can’t be wise with other men’s wisdom’” (Brooks, pp. 8-9).

If life is like a portrait, then remember this:  When we are young, we are tempted have a close up view of the portrait, in which we fill up the entire canvas.  Wisdom is seeing the bigger picture.  Our flaws, all the other people who have helped us, those in need, where we are needed, our blessings, and God’s mission to save the world. So don’t let Satan rob you of wisdom by remaining proud, over-confident and focused on self.  And of course, do not let Satan convince you that you have the power to define good and evil, right and wrong.  That is a form of pride as well, for it is the attempt to define what is good and bad for oneself, without reference to anything larger than oneself.

Love the Brotherhood

• “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King” (1 Peter 2:17).

We live in a time when many people proclaim they are against “organized religion”.  Yet how can we be "against" the church in the Bible, for it is a precious relationship that Jesus Himself established (Matthew 16:18) with the price of His life (Acts 20:28) and He Himself organized (1 Timothy 3:15).   In life you will run into an increasing number of people who do not want to belong to anything.  They will consider "suspect" any institution, including the government, higher education, the medical community or the church.  Yet it is not just a coincidence that we see and hear more and more of this happening.

“We live in an age of institutional anxiety, when people are prone to distrust large institutions.  This is partly because we’ve seen the failure of these (or some of these) institutions and party because in the era of the Big Me, we put the individual first.  We tend to prize the freedom to navigate as we wish, to run our lives as we choose... We tend to assume that the purpose of life is to lead the richest and fullest individual life, jumping from one organization to the next as it suits our needs... This mentality has contributed to institutional decay.  As the editor Tina Brown has put it, if everybody is told to think outside the box, you’ve got to expect that the boxes themselves will begin to deteriorate” (Brooks, p. 113).  So how can I use this information, especially with regard to the church revealed in the Bible?

• I come to realize what a debt I owe to all those Christians who were before me who worked and sacrificed so selflessly that a local congregation could exist in this community that teaches the whole truth.Without that, I may have never even heard the gospel.
• The real work given us by God Himself and the real opportunity for sacrifice self for the growth of the family of God, happens within the context of a local congregation (Acts 13:1; Acts 2:42; 19:10; Hebrews 10:24-25). Knowledgeable, sound and spiritual Christians are a result of the teaching, fellowship, service and encouragement that comes from a local congregation.
• The church is part of God’s eternal purpose (Ephesians 3:10-11), and the early church spread the gospel to the entire Roman world in a matter of about 30 years.Therefore, this relationship is not only of very useful to God, it has been time-tested.

Guard Your Time and Energy

• “So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting” (Ecclesiastes 11:10).
• “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from your sleep: for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11).
• “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles” (1 Peter 4:3).

The devil is a master of getting people to spend their entire lives – their priceless time, energy and passion on that which does not last and will make no lasting difference for good in themselves nor the world at large.

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net