Test Yourselves
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Title: Test Yourselves!
Text: 2 Corinthians 13:5
Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church of Icard, May 28, 2000
Congratulations to each of you who are graduating in the class of 2000. Today we honor you for your accomplishments. We also pray that God will bless and guide your lives. You mean more than you probably realize to your parents, your school, your church, and your community.
Surely by now you have had your fill of tests. Tests are one of the most frustrating experiences of high school. Tests that are too hard, or too long, or come too often.
High school students are famous for giving strange answers to test questions. Answers like these from a science exam:
Q. Define H2O and CO2.
A. H2O is hot water and CO2 is cold water.
Q. What is the difference between oxygen and hydrogen?
A. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water.
Q. What are the four seasons?
A. The four seasons are salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q. What is the main cause of dust?
A. One of the main causes of dust is janitors.
Q. Describe the spinal column.
A. The spinal column is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom. (1).
We can laugh over these answers but we all know that there is a lot of stress connected with being tested. Sometimes the stress can turn into strong anger toward school and teachers.
There's an old story about a student in graduate school and his final test in a large class taught by an eccentric teacher. He was majoring in ornithology - the study of birds. The professor who was giving the test had indicated that the test could be over anything in the entire field of ornithology. The student had studied for weeks. He had poured over numerous text books. He had studied charts, pictures, and diagrams of birds. He had learned everything he could about the history of various species and their habits of feeding, mating, and flight.
On the day of the test the students came into class, cleared their desks, and took out their pencils. The professor handed out the test. It was only one piece of paper. On it was a sketch of one pair of birds feet. Just the feet. The question was: "Name this bird."
The student's mind went blank. He fussed and fumed. Finally he picked up his test sheet and made his way past all the other students and approached the professor who was sitting at his desk.
He said, "This is the most ridiculous test I've ever been given. I've studied for weeks on the history, development, and behavior of thousands of birds. And all you do is give me a pair of feet to name. This is a stupid test and you are a stupid teacher." And with that he tore up the test page and threw it at the professor.
The professor was shocked and offended. He focused his eyes on the student and said, "Young man, what's your name?" The student pulled up his pants legs and said, "You tell me!"
We grow tired of having to prove ourselves over and over again at school. We grow weary of being tested and graded for first this and then that. Some high school graduates will never go back to school because they don't ever want to be tested again.
The Bible has an interesting approach to test-taking. The Bible says that we should test ourselves! Imagine that! Instead of getting out of test-taking the Scriptures repeatedly tell us to put ourselves to the test.
2 Cor 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!
Here the Apostle Paul is calling us into self-examination. Testing yourself is one of the great marks of maturity. The most important test results you get will never be the grades you get on a school report card. The most important grade is the one you get when you test yourself. Test yourselves!
Paul had in mind a specific kind of test. It was a test of faith. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!
Notice that Paul was asking NOT WHAT YOU KNOW but WHAT'S INSIDE OF YOU. The real test is finding out what you're made of.
So .. what's inside of you?
Well, for starters, you're made up of emotions. The teen years are notorious for being a cauldron of emotions. We've witnessed the dark side of teen age emotions in the recent school shootings in Littleton, Colorado and Conyers, Georgia. It's easy for teenagers to regard emotions as uncontrollable and overwhelming. Logic and ideas seem to count for little when matched up against feelings. Frankly, teens are often very self-centered about their feelings and act as though their feelings matter more than anything else.
In the play, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, by William Inge tells a story of an unhappy, quarreling family in Oklahoma in the early 1920's. This family - the Rubin Flood family - all were insecure, fearful and continually engulfed in self-pity.
The daughter Reenie Flood accepted a blind date to a dance at the country club which was being sponsored by a snobbish socialite family in town. Reenie's date was Sammie Goldenbloom who was an unwanted orphan.
But Sammie was a sensitive boy and a very caring date. Reenie Flood was elated that a person could care so much for her as did Sammie. She had danced all evening with Sammie and suddenly realized that no other boy had asked to dance with her. She was concerned that Sammie would think that she was not popular. She decided that she would deceive Sammie into thinking she had been dancing with others. She was actually hiding out with a girlfriend.
While Sammie stood alone, the snobbish socialite sponsor walked over to him and told him how little she thought of him - and for Jews for that matter. Completely humiliated and dejected, Sammie looked for Reenie. Unable to find her, he left. He later committed suicide. When Reenie learned what happened, she was devastated. The one chance she had to be loved was taken from her because of her own insecurities and desire to LOOK popular. She had so focused on her image that she had failed to see the one who loved her for who she was. Her conclusion of the matter was as follows: "I've always thought I was the only person in the world who had any feelings at all." (2).
Teenagers are famous for over rating their emotions, as well as not regarding the feelings of others. You have emotions but you are not your emotions. There's more to you than feelings. Test yourself and see if you've learned this yet.
Let me tell you something else that's inside of you. It may surprise you to learn that your parents are inside of you. Some of you have been fighting to get free of your parents. You are eager to cut ties, leave home, and gain your freedom. Teens are supposed to feel that way. It's all for the good because you do need to establish your own independence.
But you'll discover that no matter how far from home you go your parents are going to live inside of you for the rest of your life. The older we get the more we start seeing Mom or Dad in the mirror. I know that is a horrifying thought to you graduates but I speak the truth and am warning you in advance.
Since you carry your parents inside of you I encourage you to make the best of it. There is a tremendous reservoir of parental love surrounding you graduates this morning. I won't tell you that you have perfect parents - nobody has had perfect parents, including your parents. But I would wager that most, if not all of you, have parents who deeply love you. Don't fight your parents so hard that you miss the blessing they can place upon your life.
Benjamin West, a British artist tells how he became an artist. One day his mother went out, leaving him in charge of his little sister Sally. In his mother's absence he discovered some bottles of ink and began to paint his sister Sally's portrait. In doing so, he made a big mess. His mother returned and saw the mess, but she said nothing. She picked up the paper and saw the drawing and said, "Why, it's Sally!" And she stooped and kissed Benjamin. From that moment on, Benjamin West used to say, that it was his mother's kiss that made him a painter. (3).
I hope you have been similarly kissed and blessed by a mother or father. Test yourself and see if you can find the blessing your parents have for you. If you can find that blessing you will be a stronger person than you will ever be without it.
But the great test according to the Bible is whether you can find Christ living in you. This was Paul's concern:
2 Cor 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!
A Christian is not someone who knows about Jesus but is someone in whom Jesus is alive. How can we test ourselves to see if Jesus is living in us?
I suggest you check your image of yourself. When you think of who you are, what you're like, and where your life is going, how much of Jesus shows up in that picture? If Jesus is living in you his marks will show up in your life.
I believe the mark of Christ has been placed on you graduates. Your parents have placed the mark of Christ upon you through their prayers and by including you in the ministry of the church. Your church has placed the mark of Christ upon you through baptism and church membership and hopefully discipleship.
But parents and church can only place an external mark of Christ upon you. Only you yourselves can let the mark of Christ penetrate your heart and soul that it becomes a living and a saving faith in Christ.
Our hope is that you will carry the mark of Christ with you as you commence a new life.
Our prayer is that you will let the mark of Christ teach you who you really are.
Our desire is that you will pass the test of faith and that Christ will in fact live in you because you have asked him to take up permanent residence in your life.
And our great fear is that you will despise the mark of Christ and forget who you really are.
The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard tells the story of a peasant had lived all his life in the country and who longed to see the sights of the big city. He saved his money and bought himself a pair of patent leather shoes and silk stockings. He went to Copenhagen, where he wandered wide-eyed like a bull before a new barn door. He was a simple bumpkin, a country clod.
At the end of the day he went to a pub and spent the rest of his money drinking strong beer. He stumbled out of the pub and fell in a drunken stupor on the cobblestone street with his head in the gutter. Along came a carriage and the driver shouted, "Hey there, you drunken peasant, get your legs out of the road or I will drive over them."
The peasant rose from the gutter and looked at his legs, he did not recognize the shiny shoes and silk stockings, so he said, "Drive on, those are not my legs." So the driver drove on and cut off the peasant's legs.
Mixed in with all the congratulations and joy of your graduation ceremonies and parties is our fear that some of you will fail the test of faith and become someone unrecognizable as a Christian.
We fear that some of you will end up in the gutters of life in a stupor produced by the world's drugs, or greed, or immorality. We're afraid that you yourselves might lose sight of you who are in Christ and foolishly cry out, "Drive on, those are not my legs," and live to regret it.
You are the only ones who can prevent that tragedy from happening. We cannot give you our faith - you must possess your own. You must test yourselves.
The truth is that we are never done with tests. There is no escaping them. Go on to college and your professors will test you. Go into the military and your superior officers will test you. Go into the work force and your boss will test you. Enter into marriage and your spouse will test you. Become a parent and your children will test you. Stand before God and God will test you.
Instead of running from tests the Bible encourages us to enter into testing. Listen to the words of Psalm 139: (Psalms 139:23-24 NRSV) "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. {24} See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
When we test ourselves as Christians we invite God to search us out. We ask God to show us what there is in us that needs to be reformed, or released, or rejected. Christians ask to be tested so that they might be led by God into the way of everlasting life.
Are you willing to test yourselves? Will you invite God to search you out? That's the test that matters most. Test yourselves! May it be so for you and for me.
Sources:
1. Rev. Dr. David E. Leininger, "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR... YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT! " quoting from http://www. intermarket. net/laughweb/education/kids. say. the. darndest. things. htm.
2. Adapted and edited from Questions God Asks, by Leonard Griffith, submitted by Robin J. Wilkie, St. James United Church, Waterdown, Ontario.
3. Submitted by Fred Lowery, First Baptist Church, Bossier City, Louisiana to Pastor's Story File.