{"id":138,"date":"2018-11-06T16:42:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=138"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:40:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:40:53","slug":"adjusting-your-mirrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/adjusting-your-mirrors\/","title":{"rendered":"Adjusting Your Mirrors"},"content":{"rendered":"
Adjusting Your Mirrors<\/span><\/div>\n

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Key Passage<\/strong>:\u00a0I Corinthians 10Key Thought<\/strong>: Each of us needs to diligently\u00a0use<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0adjust<\/em>\u00a0the \u201crear view mirrors\u201d that are provided for us through the Bible, Holy Spirit, church, and many other Christian influences.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Introduction:<\/strong>\u00a0One of the toughest things in the world to do is to explain why you messed up, why you didn\u2019t get a certain job done. Something was really important\u2014and you realize that\u00a0now<\/em>!\u2014but back when it happened, you didn\u2019t take it seriously. Your explanation after the fact\u00a0 sounds lame as you try to explain to your boss or to the jury or the Senate Investigative Committee.<\/p>\n

Illustration:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m Too Busy!\u201d Today, on cruise ships, it\u2019s fairly easy to communicate ship-to-shore with international satellite cell phone service, e-mail, pagers, etc. But let\u2019s think back to the days when everyone on board had to receive messages from home through that little radio shack where an overworked officer down in the bowels of the ship had to decipher the dit-dah-dit-dah of Morse code, write it down for you, and have a messenger take it up to your cabin.<\/p>\n

John George Phillips was first operator for a ship. Radio traffic was exceptionally busy one night, and the ship was relaying Morse Code from a land-based \u201cserver\u201d\u2014they probably didn\u2019t describe them like that back then\u2014at a place called Cape Race. People wanted to say hello to their loved ones; businessmen had to get the latest stock quotes. And when another ship out there on the high seas tried to break through the radio clutter with an official message, Phillips angrily snapped off a nasty\u00a0dot-dot-dot dot-dot-dot-dot dot-dot-dash dash, dot-dot-dash dot-dash-dash-dot.<\/em>\u00a0In other words, \u201cShut up!\u201d\u00a0 In fact, his word-for-word coded message read: \u201cShut up! Shut up! I am busy; I am working Cape Race!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, a message from another ship might be kind of important, and it was a blind spot for this impatient John George Phillips to not recognize that. But it would be rather difficult for him to go back later and apologize to his employer, the White Star Line, for his error in judgment. He couldn\u2019t get back on the radio and ask forgiveness for snapping\u00a0at the radio operator on the\u00a0Californian<\/em>\u00a0about bugging him with an ice warning. And it would be very difficult, in fact, impossible, for him to say he was sorry to the 1,500-plus people who joined him in drowning when the unsinkable ship\u00a0Titanic<\/em>\u00a0plunged beneath the waves that cold April night in 1912.<\/p>\n

Scriptural Ice Warning:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cHow can I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart?\u201d\u00a0<\/em>King David writes, in Psalm 19:12 (Living Bible<\/em>). Another paraphrase actually says \u201cblind spot.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u201cCleanse me,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>he prays,\u00a0\u201cfrom these hidden faults.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Secret Sins:\u00a0<\/strong>We often think of \u201chidden faults\u201d as the ones we try to hide from others. King David was an unfortunate genius at doing that too. But what he\u2019s really lamenting here are the secret sins that are even secret to US! They\u2019re in there, and we don\u2019t know it. We have a tendency toward anger, or dishonesty, or\u2014in this\u00a0Titanic<\/em>\u00a0radio operator\u2019s case\u2014impatience . . . and we\u2019re not even aware that we\u2019re steaming toward a rendezvous with the ice.<\/p>\n

How to Overcome a Blind Spot:\u00a0<\/strong>Whether you\u2019re down at the car dealership or cruising the spiritual highway of eternal life, what do you do when you know there\u2019s a spot of freeway asphalt that you can\u2019t see from your position?<\/p>\n

1. Use the Mirrors.<\/strong>\u00a0Every major automaker in the world now has three mirrors standard. Your rear view mirror and side mirrors both right and left. If you dutifully look in all three, blind spots do at least shrink up and get smaller.<\/p>\n

Rumfeldism:\u00a0<\/strong>President Bush\u2019s former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, became well-known for his pithy sayings, the one-liners he and his staff members tried to follow in life. As an experienced Washington insider who served many Presidents, he observed regarding blind spots: \u201cVisit with your predecessors from previous administrations. They know the ropes and can help you see around some corners. Try to make ORIGINAL mistakes, rather than needlessly repeating theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Repeat Sins:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s a well-known bromide: \u201cIf you keep doing things the way you\u2019ve always done them, you better settle in and expect the same results you\u2019ve always had.\u201d The parallel saying to the one about making new mistakes is the one where a boss lamented about his underling: \u201cThis guy never makes the same mistake twice, but I think he\u2019s made all of them once now!\u201d<\/p>\n

Wisdom and Warnings from the Rear View Mirror:<\/strong>\u00a0Looking in the rear view mirror of our spiritual life would mean to consider our past. Did we spend a lot of time three years ago ignoring our feeding of our soul?\u00a0 Skipping our Bible reading and sleeping in on the weekends, absenting ourselves from church?\u00a0 All right\u2014so we already\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0that such a life leads to spiritual defeat. We already proved that three years ago. Why go through it again?<\/p>\n

When we . . .<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0retaliate with anger against our spouse or our kids
\n\u2022\u00a0keep track of wrongdoing
\n\u2022\u00a0pay back evil for evil<\/p>\n

Many of us in God\u2019s family have already demonstrated the utter failure of those ways of living. We already know. A glance in the rear view mirror will show us those demons immediately.<\/p>\n

Paul the Driving Instructor:\u00a0<\/strong>In I Corinthians 10, the NIV heading is: \u201cWarnings From Israel\u2019s History.\u201d\u00a0 Paul talks about the apostasy of ancient Israel, how they ended up dying in the wilderness because of their sins and rebellion. Then in verse 6, he essentially asks: \u201cHey, do you think all this stuff is in the Bible for nothing?\u00a0 How do you think these sad stories got in here?\u201d His exact warning:\u00a0\u201cNow these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting OUR hearts on evil things as they did.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Like Rumsfeld says, \u201cDon\u2019t make your parents\u2019 mistakes! If you have to make any at all, make some new ones of your own.\u201d\u00a0 Paul continues:\u00a0\u201cDo not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: \u2018The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.\u2019 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did\u2014and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did\u2014and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did\u2014and were killed by the destroying angel\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(vv. 7-10).<\/p>\n

Paul concludes, for our benefit:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cBe smart. Just a glance in the mirror will tell you that these are all killers: idolatry, adultery, presuming on God\u2019s good graces, grumbling. Don\u2019t even go there.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, he comes right back to the \u201cmirror\u201d concept again in verse 11:\u00a0\u201cThese things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings FOR US, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.\u201d The Message<\/em>\u00a0paraphrase is so blunt and perfect for this 21st century:\u00a0\u201cThese are all warning markers\u2014DANGER!\u2014in our history books, written down so that we don\u2019t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel\u2014they at the beginning, we at the end\u2014and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>And then Paul adds: \u201cDon\u2019t be so naive and self-confident. You\u2019re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it\u2019s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Adjust Those Mirrors.<\/strong>\u00a0Have you had to move the mirrors in a rental car, or after your kid took the family Camry out for the weekend?\u00a0 And sometimes we need to make spiritual adjustments in how we look, how we read the Bible, how often or in what spirit we read it. How we hear a sermon at church\u2014inviting its message to apply to US instead of to our fellow \u201cdrivers\u201d two pews over.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:\u00a0<\/strong>We remember how our drivers education teachers, and the instructor from the DMV, had us move our seat up just right and adjust the mirrors BEFORE we even switched on the engine. First thing in the morning, when we get out of bed, it might not be a bad idea there too. Instead of hitting the ground running, hit the floor on your knees.
\n______________________________<\/p>\n

Submitted by David B. Smith. Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2007. Click here for\u00a0<\/span>usage guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adjusting Your Mirrors Key Passage:\u00a0I Corinthians 10Key Thought: Each of us needs to diligently\u00a0use\u00a0and\u00a0adjust\u00a0the \u201crear view mirrors\u201d that are provided for us through the Bible, Holy Spirit, church, and many …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}