Are Your Cows Out?
Notes
Transcript
Are Your Cows Out?
Are Your Cows Out?
The cows got out again.
Monday morning there were several wandering around our property, Kota’s, and on the exit ramp to the 17.
Lisa called the sheriff’s dept. they came out and wrangled them.
Then she tracked down the rancher who got them from the Sheriff.
It’s dangerous. Cows on the highway. Not good for the cows nor for the cars.
The story is, when we bought the land behind us there was no fence, nor had their ever been a fence at the forest.
Then, one day, there were a few cows wandering around here.
Men’s bfst, I’d watch them out my office window.
A few weeks go by, 1 day the rancher came and collected them and trailered them out.
You don’t just grab a cow by the ear, or a bull by the horns, and force them to go anywhere.
And avg. cow weighs 1600 lbs. and a bull 2400.
They had their horses and they guided them into the trailer.
A couple of weeks later I see some activity back there so I walk back to check it out.
2 guys building a barbed-wire fence on the property line.
The rancher had leased the forest land to graze his cattle and didn’t know there wasn’t a fence so they were putting one up.
We had built a road back there for the Rough Riders to take our RZRs and Rhinos out b/c it’s only 30-minute ride to a gorgeous view above Oak Creek Canyon.
But, now there’s a fence and no gate.
We’re thinking one day we’ll put a gate in b/c that’s the only way we’ll get thru the fence.
So, we moved on. Then, just a few months later, I had Jack here at the office and took him out for a run.
I discovered that the elk had destroyed the fence. They just walked thru it.
They certainly don’t need a gate, they can jump over it, but they just walked thru it. The barbed-wire is nothing to their hide.
The fence posts were bent and leaning at less than a 45 degree angle almost laying down on the ground.
I don’t know who to contact, I assume they are keeping an eye on their fence.
Obviously not. This summer, the rancher thinking he had his cows corralled in and under control let them loose in the forest.
And, we found them in our parking lot Monday morning.
His cows were loose again. He went to bed one night thinking everything was under control only to wake up the next day and find nothing was under control.
And, I don’t know the guys who built the fence or whose idea it was, but it’s embarrassing how ineffective the fence they built turned out to be.
Isn’t that the way our life goes. We go to bed one night thinking everything is under control. Then, wake up in the morning to find out some force of nature destroyed our fence that we thought controlled our cows.
We had built a fence. It was a good fence. It would keep most of our lives right where we wanted them to be.
Then, something comes along like a pandemic and walks thru our illusion of control and we wake up to find everything we thought we knew where it was but it wasn’t.
And, we can’t go out and force or drag everything back. These things are too heavy to easily get back where we thought we controlled them.
It’s funny if you’re thinking about cows, but what about this?
You’re floating along thru life just managing to get by financially. Then the pandemic. The market tanks. Your revenue stream dries up. And you panic b/c your cows are out and you can’t force them back where they were.
Or, your marriage is just getting by. You get your kids to school, go to work, you come home, you do your kids’ stuff, watch a little TV, go to bed, get up the next day, rinse and repeat.
But, the pandemic. You can’t go to work. Your kids can’t go to school. There’s nothing on TV you haven’t already seen. And where your marriage was just getting by it was b/c you had built a fence around it so nothing could happen to expose it where it was weak.
Now, your cows are out, and the danger is your marriage won’t survive the pandemic.
Or, maybe, it’s not this virus at all. Your health. You’re reasonably healthy. A little overweight, no real exercise, your numbers aren’t great, but you’ve built a pretty good fence around you and it seems like everything is under control.
Then, you get a diagnosis. To fight what your doc says you have is going t/b tough.
It would have been so much better to be lighter, stronger, and generally healthier.
Your cows are out. There’s no easy way to get them back under control.
Then, you tell ppl where you’re struggling and they ask,
“Why aren’t you in better shape?”
“Did you ever work on your marriage?”
“Why are you so deep in debt?”
The answer comes w/ a full dose of embarrassment and a little shame b/c at one point in your life you knew better.
When things are humming along we build these fences giving ourselves the impression everything is under control. Then, a force of nature comes along and we discover that not only do we not control over the force of nature, we don’t have control of whatever we thought we did before it hit the fan.
In c.1, the church was humming along, growing, powerful things were happening, everyone felt good b/c everything seemed under control. Then Nero happened. They couldn’t control him and they couldn’t stay in Jerusalem.
So, now they are hurting, hungry, grieving and they have to do something b/c it’s dangerous where they are.
Financially, emotionally, mentally, they are on the edge w/ 1 foot over. If they don’t do something somebody is going to get hurt.
Do they try to build another fence on their own to at least give themselves the impression of control?
Or, do they lean into their relationship w/ the One who really is in control?
Do you feel it?
We had all these fences erected around our lives. A fence around our finances. A fence around health. A fence around our church. A fence around our family, kids, g-kids, their school.
Then, a force of nature came along and blew everything up. Our cows are out and everything is in danger.
What are we going to do?
Here’s what John says we should do.
Stop trying to manage things on your own, build your own fences that natural forces will destroy, and trust the One who really is in control to take care of you.
Your cows may already be out of the fence you built. But they’re not outside the fence God built. And, b/c He loves you, and them, more than you do, He’ll take better care of them and you than you ever could. And, they are never out of His control.
So, stay close to Jesus and don’t kid yourself that your cows are ever really under your control.
You’ll be embarrassed when it’s obvious they aren’t.
John starts out reminding us to continue to stay close to the One who really is in control.
Stay Close
Stay Close
And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Continue in. Remain. Live in.
It’s the vine and the branches. The branch gets everything it needs from the vine.
Apart from the vine, the branch will die.
You have a nice, warm house to go home to every day. Why would go out into the forest w/ a sleeping bag and spend the night?
It’s cold, raining, snowing, you’ll catch pneumonia and die.
Then your family is left to explain why you did something so foolish. They will be embarrassed, ashamed for you.
They are still you family. But you’re dead and you don’t need t/b.
The next time you see Jesus, you’ll be dead. If you know Him, you’re saved. But, you’ll have to explain the foolishness that characterized your life that he is forgiving you for.
When you know you’ve messed up, and you will know exactly where you messed up, You’re not so bold and confident walking into the principal’s office.
You know Jesus is righteous. You know what righteousness looks like.
You also know Jesus does not expect sinless perfection from us.
That means 2 things.
We will feel some shame for the stuff we do that we shouldn’t have done.
We’re still his children. Born of Him.
We are saved by faith, not by what we do. So there is nothing we can do that can take away our salvation.
If we work our way out of heaven, then we’d have to work our way back in. And, you can’t work your way in.
If you have faith, you’re in. If you have faith, your life will reflect it.
What you do is born of what you believe.
But, what you believe is most important.
Our behavior still matters b/c it is a product of what we believe.
What is belief?
It means you have accepted Jesus’s extreme act of love on your behalf to be punished by God instead of you.
And, now you love Jesus more than anything else and love those around you at least as much as you love yourself.
This love motivates our behavior. Love is always a better motivator than fear or anything else.
This is why John wrote this next.
Love Motivates
Love Motivates
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
We are His children. Not hired hands or bought slaves. We’re family w/ all the rights and privileges.
Paul wrote:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He didn’t wait for us to clean up our acts to die for us. If he waiting, it wouldn’t be done, yet.
Jesus knows our struggle to do right by Him b/c He struggled to right by us.
He succeeded where we can’t. He knew it and He did it anyway.
That’s how He demonstrated his love for us.
And, how we demonstrate our love for Him is by working as hard as we can, using all the resources Jesus makes available, to sacrifice the things we think we control to Him.
He really does control them.
Only God controls everything and where we think we are in control , in effect, we believe we god over it. And, we’re not.
Surrender control.
The next time we see Jesus we will be more like Him than we ever have been before.
We won’t perfect. Even in heaven we won’t be b/c that would make us God. We’re not.
It will be easier to do right b/c there won’t be the forces of evil at work in us and around us.
Until that time, we use what resources we have to purify ourselves.
Last week I talked about the Advocate, the anointing that we get from God. That is the HS and all the power and ability He brings w/ Him
The struggle is still real.
But, Jesus has dramatically increased the odds in our favor by what He did for us on the cross.
He broke the bond that sin has us bound by.
Broken Free
Broken Free
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
The bondage has been broken. When Jesus died, b/c he had never sinned, he broke the bondage for everyone else who has sinned and who accepts the freedom that’s offered.
We are no longer bound by Satan’s fence because a greater force came along and destroyed it.
Now we are wandering free. But, we are no longer in danger b/c God is still in control.
After his great act of love, our response after belief is our own act of love for him by giving up the things that were the reason why he had to die.
Jesus made things possible for us but we have to use the resources He has given us to make it happen.
That is our act of love for Him.
Our behavior matters.
That’s what family does. Behavior matters. Words are important. Actions more so.
In marriage we make a commitment to act like we love each other.
When we have kids, we do it for them before they ever realize the choice they have to act like they love their parents.
That’s part of being a family. Learning what it looks like to love each other.
That’s where John goes next.
We’re Family
We’re Family
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
I’ve told this before but it applies here.
When my teenage kids would come to me to ask if the could do something with their friends.
If I said ‘no’, their complaint was,
“That’s not fair! Why can’t we do what our friends are doing?”
“What’s my last name?
What’s your last name?
What’s their last name?
Bowyers do what Bowyers do, they do what they do.
There are bene’s to being a Bowyer. What are they?
There are responsibilities, too.
Chores. Church.
How we treat ea other, talk to ea other, and what we do for ea other.
My DNA is in my kids. My seed is in them.
They are my children. There is nothing they can do to change that.
These are simple family responsibilities. We do these things b/c we love ea other.
None of us do these things perfectly. But, we try hard.
Mom and I punish if it’s deserved when one of our kids messes up. But, we mess up too.
We are gracious and merciful. B/C, that ‘s what families do for ea other b/c we love ea other.
We give ea other the benefit of the doubt.
Don’t let anyone convince you to do what ppl do who don’t have God’s last name.
Families don’t do that to ea other.
Don’t try to control the uncontrollable.
Building fences that don’t work is and act that claims you are god over what you think you have contained.
That is one of the arguments that is as old as Eden. You will be just like God if you eat that fruit.
You will be in control. Not God.
But, it’s a lie. Even Satan knows there are forces at work we can’t see nor anticipate.
And when they blow thru our fence Satan won’t be there to protect our cows or us.
But, God will. B/C, that’s what families do who love each other.
Sometimes we get too hung up on the snap shots.
But, God sees the movie. His reactions are based on the movie, not the moment.
As 60-year olds we have a bit of a clue about how our 30-year old children’s lives will go.
Why g-parents don’t over react the way parents do.
We’re just 1 generation apart.
God has the benefit of all history and the future. He knows we’re not perfect. He knows we never will be.
He died for us anyway. And, has given us resources to do a lot better.
He is gracious and merciful b/c he loves us.
Even when we think we have our cows under control.
Applications
Applications
Get Closer
Get Closer
What do you need to do to get closer to Christ?
Spend more time in your Bible?
Pray more, better. Praise, thank, confess, then ask.
Find a way to serve that God has gifted you to do?
Spend more time w/ better friends and less time w/ the not-so-good ones.
Cut it out
Cut it out
Is there something you know you need to cut out of your life that you shouldn’t be doing.
God has cut the bond that holds you to it.
Now, you need to surrender it and let go.
Try harder w/ the strength that the HS provides, not your own.
What is it?
Fencing
Fencing
What fence have you built that you need to tear down?
You think you are in control.
Really, only God is in control and there are forces around you that you can neither see nor anticipate that will prove how little control you really have.
You are better off tearing the fence down now before it gets destroyed and you have to admit you built something so ineffective.
It will be embarrassing and shameful when the whole world sees what you did.
Stop trying to manage things on your own, build your own fences that natural forces will destroy, and trust the One who really is in control to take care of you.
Your cows may already be out of the fence you built. But they’re not outside the fence God built. And, b/c He loves you, and them, more than you do, He’ll take better care of them and you than you ever could. And, they are never out of His control.
So, stay close to Jesus and don’t kid yourself that your cows are ever really under your control.
You’ll be embarrassed when it’s obvious they aren’t.