There is a toxin that many people carry around with them. They carry it as casually as they carry a cell phone, as dutifully as they carry their wallet, as fatally as they might carry a poison.
That toxin is guilt. And as common as guilt is in our lives, not everyone knows how to deal with it. Jesus tells us what to do with it. This audio file explores his thoughts and works to liberate us from guilt.
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Human beings tend to resist lots of things.
For example, some people resist wearing seatbelts. They resist it in spite of statistics that say it’s the wise thing to do. They resist even though “It’s the law.” Ivan Segedin was very resistant to wearing a seatbelt. Ivan took his resistance to an extreme. The police had ticketed him 32 times over five years for failing to use his seat belt. Even though this was costing him big money, Ivan refused to buckle up. Finally, instead of obeying the law, he decided to rely on deception. He made a fake seat belt that would hang over his shoulder and make it appear that he was wearing a seat belt when he was not. His trick worked for a while. Then, he had a head-on collision. You know the rest of the story, right? He was thrown forward onto the steering wheel and killed.
Discussing the accident, the coroner described the fake seat belt with these words: “Though his car was fitted with seat belts, an extra belt with a long strap had been knotted above the seat belt on the driver’s side, providing a belt to simply sit over the driver’s shoulder.” Resistance, in Ivan’s case, was futile. Worse – his resistance was fatal.
In our passage today, Jesus addresses the resistance each of us has in reference to him. Click play below to listen to the message.
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Growing up on a farm, I’ve used a pitchfork many times. We had some forks that had tines missing, and they were of almost no value at all. You can imagine that a one pronged pitch fork is useless. A two-pronged one is just frustrating to use. If you want a fork that works, it needs to be at least three-pronged.
In Matthew 11, God gives us a three-pronged tool to make it through faith-struggles, victoriously. And although it’s not a pitch-fork, you need all three tines — all three prongs — of the tool. If you’re missing one, your faith will be in jeopardy.
The prongs? Know your Bible. Look for God’s work in your life. Let God be in charge.
This message gives more instuction on how this tool helps you through faith-struggles.
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