The Inner Struggle
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Contents
"The Inner Struggle" by John Fitzgerald
"No Pleasing Some People" by Frank Ramirez
* * * * * * *
The Inner Struggle
by John Fitzgerald
Romans 7:15:25a
I heard it once said that the best kind of preaching comes from a person who has one finger pointed toward a congregation and four fingers aimed at themselves. It is true that a preacher with an awareness of personal sin can better speak to pews filled with folks estranged from God.
All of us need help in how to be consistent in our walk with God. Sermons which ministers to this need and are reinforced by a preacher who puts the message into practice are powerful. Edgar A. Guest captures this sense in a poem titled "A Sermon That Really Speaks."
I'd rather see a sermon
Than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
Than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil
And more willing than the ear;
Fine counsel is confusing,
But example's always clear.
And the best of all the preachers
Are the men who live their creeds;
For to see good put into action
Is what everybody needs.
The challenge is to put words and deeds together. As a minister, my discovery has been that people claim they will not come to church because there are too many hypocrites. In other words, Christians do not practice what they preach. There is an element of truth in this statement. It also is true that this is a convenient excuse for those who were are not willing to be involved with church in the first place.
The church is a fellowship of sinners. Every one of us is working on some place where we fall short in our relationship with Christ. Even a great man of God like Saint Paul struggled in his ability to overcome personal sin. This scripture portrays in vivid fashion this inner wrestling that Paul endured.
The apostle Paul aptly describes his battle with inner demons beginning in verse 18: "For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is; in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
It is frustrating to yearn for living in a manner pleasing to Christ and yet be constantly tormented by the devil in this desire. This is what Paul is talking about. Our longing is for the Holy Spirit but Satan overcomes this inclination and we end up doing things that are completely opposite of gospel teachings.
No one is spared this inner challenge. We do great harm when trying to ignore the struggle between good and evil within our personality. The seeds of hypocrisy are planted when pretending that sin has been eradicated from our being. Every day you and I must repent from wrongdoing and ask Jesus to cleanse our hearts.
We would be in awful shape if there were no solution to this turmoil within. Saint Paul states there is hope for our predicament. Verse 24 tells us, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
It is only in Christ Jesus that victory is achieved in our warfare with Satan. We will be buffeted by sin every which way until Jesus comes into our lives and grants liberty. There will be daily struggles even when Jesus is part of our walk. But the going gets easier and our struggle is less intense. In some instances the Holy Spirit gives us a new freedom over things that have formerly caused so much pain.
Christian living is never a straight line. All of us are going forward, sideways, and maybe even a little backward in the process of growing in God's love. If this is so, we may like to have an indicator of what progress has been made in our goal to be Christlike. In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul outlines some guidelines for ways to determine if we are getting better in our battle with sin.
The apostle lists nine fruits of God's Spirit that becomes part of our life in this scripture from Galatians. These fruits are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we are more loving, or have a greater peace, then Christ is living within. If our life demonstrates a fuller kindness or gentleness, we can be sure that Jesus is present. This is one way to test and see where we are in our walk with God.
Today I hope your life witnesses to the love, joy, and peace of Jesus. We can have victory over the sin that entangles us. It is not an easy battle but it is one that must be fought. In closing, I encourage you to remember that all sermons should be preached with one finger pointing in the congregation's direction and four fingers pointing squarely back to the pastor.
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
No Pleasing Some People
by Frank Ramirez
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn."
-- Matthew 11:16-17
In this text Jesus seems to complain that it doesn't matter what you do, some people will just find fault. Play the flute and celebrate? Nobody's dancing. Weep and wail? Nobody's mourning.
Abraham Lincoln, now celebrated as one of our greatest, or perhaps the greatest president, stamped onto our penny and pressed into service on our five-dollar bill, and certain, every February, to show up in Presidents' Day commercials selling cars, took office during one of the most turbulent times in our history. Despite the respect he enjoys today, he was reviled from all quarters, criticized mercilessly for what he was and what he wasn't.
During the four months between his election to the presidency (something no one could have predicted the year before) and his inauguration he was reviled by southerners who twisted what he said, ignored his olive branches, and left the Union before he even took office so they might learn what he really stood for. In many places throughout the south he was not even on the 1860 ballot. Everywhere in Dixie he was burned in effigy, lampooned in newspapers, and harpooned with insults and injury.
Then again, some of his own generals thought him an absolute fool. General George McClellan, who would reveal himself an able administrator but incapable of fighting, referred to him in a letter to his wife as "the original gorilla," and once, when Lincoln and member of his cabinet came to his home to consult with him, McClellan left them waiting downstairs for hours while he went to bed, refusing to meet with his commander-in-chief at all.
Political cartoonists had a field day with his stature, elongating him to a figure stretched across an ungainly frame, something one might meet in a feverish dream. Even when not directly satirized, Lincoln's appearance, accent, and vocal tone were mocked in sometimes hateful and hurtful ways.
Some said he was too willing to compromise. Others accused him of inflexibility.
John Wilkes Booth, a second-rate actor compared to his older brother Edmund Booth, often threatened to kidnap or kill him. Finally, he did.
Lincoln suffered from crippling depression and indeed those who have studied the matter have concluded that Lincoln did not overcome his depression to triumph as president, but triumphed as president while living with this debilitating disease.
Lincoln relieved some of this great sadness by telling jokes. He loved to make people laugh and this relieved his spirits. Even here he was criticized by those who thought it inappropriate for him to have a sense of humor and to take joy in telling funny stories.
No president spent as much time crafting his speeches, and today they are recognized as masterful expressions of the English language. Yet at the time he delivered his most famous speech, known as the Gettysburg Address the Chicago Times observed that "The cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances." The Harrisburg Patriot and Union (which finally retracted these remarks 150 years later) noted, "We pass over the silly remarks of the president; for the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of."
Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave whose books galvanized many into the fight against slavery, questioned whether Lincoln's motives were mixed and whether he was interested in the issue of slavery at all. He eventually got to know Lincoln and a friendship grew between them, as well as a mutual respect.
Lincoln, who was not threatened by having other intelligent individuals in his cabinet, at first did not impress the very people he invited to form his government. William H. Seward, for instance, agreed to become Secretary of State because he imagined Lincoln was so weak that he himself would end up running the government. It was only later that he came to realize the intelligence, strength, and character of the president and became one of his most ardent admirers.
It seems that in order to admire Lincoln, you had to make an effort to know him. Many in his day didn't try. The same might be said to be true for Jesus. In his day it is clear that many didn't listen and get to know who Jesus was and what he was saying. Is that true today as well?
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 6, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"The Inner Struggle" by John Fitzgerald
"No Pleasing Some People" by Frank Ramirez
* * * * * * *
The Inner Struggle
by John Fitzgerald
Romans 7:15:25a
I heard it once said that the best kind of preaching comes from a person who has one finger pointed toward a congregation and four fingers aimed at themselves. It is true that a preacher with an awareness of personal sin can better speak to pews filled with folks estranged from God.
All of us need help in how to be consistent in our walk with God. Sermons which ministers to this need and are reinforced by a preacher who puts the message into practice are powerful. Edgar A. Guest captures this sense in a poem titled "A Sermon That Really Speaks."
I'd rather see a sermon
Than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
Than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil
And more willing than the ear;
Fine counsel is confusing,
But example's always clear.
And the best of all the preachers
Are the men who live their creeds;
For to see good put into action
Is what everybody needs.
The challenge is to put words and deeds together. As a minister, my discovery has been that people claim they will not come to church because there are too many hypocrites. In other words, Christians do not practice what they preach. There is an element of truth in this statement. It also is true that this is a convenient excuse for those who were are not willing to be involved with church in the first place.
The church is a fellowship of sinners. Every one of us is working on some place where we fall short in our relationship with Christ. Even a great man of God like Saint Paul struggled in his ability to overcome personal sin. This scripture portrays in vivid fashion this inner wrestling that Paul endured.
The apostle Paul aptly describes his battle with inner demons beginning in verse 18: "For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is; in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
It is frustrating to yearn for living in a manner pleasing to Christ and yet be constantly tormented by the devil in this desire. This is what Paul is talking about. Our longing is for the Holy Spirit but Satan overcomes this inclination and we end up doing things that are completely opposite of gospel teachings.
No one is spared this inner challenge. We do great harm when trying to ignore the struggle between good and evil within our personality. The seeds of hypocrisy are planted when pretending that sin has been eradicated from our being. Every day you and I must repent from wrongdoing and ask Jesus to cleanse our hearts.
We would be in awful shape if there were no solution to this turmoil within. Saint Paul states there is hope for our predicament. Verse 24 tells us, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
It is only in Christ Jesus that victory is achieved in our warfare with Satan. We will be buffeted by sin every which way until Jesus comes into our lives and grants liberty. There will be daily struggles even when Jesus is part of our walk. But the going gets easier and our struggle is less intense. In some instances the Holy Spirit gives us a new freedom over things that have formerly caused so much pain.
Christian living is never a straight line. All of us are going forward, sideways, and maybe even a little backward in the process of growing in God's love. If this is so, we may like to have an indicator of what progress has been made in our goal to be Christlike. In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul outlines some guidelines for ways to determine if we are getting better in our battle with sin.
The apostle lists nine fruits of God's Spirit that becomes part of our life in this scripture from Galatians. These fruits are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we are more loving, or have a greater peace, then Christ is living within. If our life demonstrates a fuller kindness or gentleness, we can be sure that Jesus is present. This is one way to test and see where we are in our walk with God.
Today I hope your life witnesses to the love, joy, and peace of Jesus. We can have victory over the sin that entangles us. It is not an easy battle but it is one that must be fought. In closing, I encourage you to remember that all sermons should be preached with one finger pointing in the congregation's direction and four fingers pointing squarely back to the pastor.
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
No Pleasing Some People
by Frank Ramirez
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn."
-- Matthew 11:16-17
In this text Jesus seems to complain that it doesn't matter what you do, some people will just find fault. Play the flute and celebrate? Nobody's dancing. Weep and wail? Nobody's mourning.
Abraham Lincoln, now celebrated as one of our greatest, or perhaps the greatest president, stamped onto our penny and pressed into service on our five-dollar bill, and certain, every February, to show up in Presidents' Day commercials selling cars, took office during one of the most turbulent times in our history. Despite the respect he enjoys today, he was reviled from all quarters, criticized mercilessly for what he was and what he wasn't.
During the four months between his election to the presidency (something no one could have predicted the year before) and his inauguration he was reviled by southerners who twisted what he said, ignored his olive branches, and left the Union before he even took office so they might learn what he really stood for. In many places throughout the south he was not even on the 1860 ballot. Everywhere in Dixie he was burned in effigy, lampooned in newspapers, and harpooned with insults and injury.
Then again, some of his own generals thought him an absolute fool. General George McClellan, who would reveal himself an able administrator but incapable of fighting, referred to him in a letter to his wife as "the original gorilla," and once, when Lincoln and member of his cabinet came to his home to consult with him, McClellan left them waiting downstairs for hours while he went to bed, refusing to meet with his commander-in-chief at all.
Political cartoonists had a field day with his stature, elongating him to a figure stretched across an ungainly frame, something one might meet in a feverish dream. Even when not directly satirized, Lincoln's appearance, accent, and vocal tone were mocked in sometimes hateful and hurtful ways.
Some said he was too willing to compromise. Others accused him of inflexibility.
John Wilkes Booth, a second-rate actor compared to his older brother Edmund Booth, often threatened to kidnap or kill him. Finally, he did.
Lincoln suffered from crippling depression and indeed those who have studied the matter have concluded that Lincoln did not overcome his depression to triumph as president, but triumphed as president while living with this debilitating disease.
Lincoln relieved some of this great sadness by telling jokes. He loved to make people laugh and this relieved his spirits. Even here he was criticized by those who thought it inappropriate for him to have a sense of humor and to take joy in telling funny stories.
No president spent as much time crafting his speeches, and today they are recognized as masterful expressions of the English language. Yet at the time he delivered his most famous speech, known as the Gettysburg Address the Chicago Times observed that "The cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances." The Harrisburg Patriot and Union (which finally retracted these remarks 150 years later) noted, "We pass over the silly remarks of the president; for the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of."
Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave whose books galvanized many into the fight against slavery, questioned whether Lincoln's motives were mixed and whether he was interested in the issue of slavery at all. He eventually got to know Lincoln and a friendship grew between them, as well as a mutual respect.
Lincoln, who was not threatened by having other intelligent individuals in his cabinet, at first did not impress the very people he invited to form his government. William H. Seward, for instance, agreed to become Secretary of State because he imagined Lincoln was so weak that he himself would end up running the government. It was only later that he came to realize the intelligence, strength, and character of the president and became one of his most ardent admirers.
It seems that in order to admire Lincoln, you had to make an effort to know him. Many in his day didn't try. The same might be said to be true for Jesus. In his day it is clear that many didn't listen and get to know who Jesus was and what he was saying. Is that true today as well?
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
*****************************************
StoryShare, July 6, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
