Teague Bible Church

DRIVING IN ENGLAND
Imagine you are going to live in England for a year. During your stay you will be required to drive yourself everywhere you go. Fortunately for you, a lifelong friend you know lives in England. She lives in the same area in which you will soon live. You are really concerned about the driving thing because they drive on the “wrong,” no, let me correct that, the “other side” of the road.
Your plan is a great one because you already know, that under pressure, you will immediately revert to your old habit of moving toward the right side of the road. It will be hard enough to do even with little traffic. It becomes dangerous in traffic.
You get along swimmingly for a few weeks, even though you reverted back several times to your old ways during that time. If it had not been for the constant corrections from your friend, you would have crashed many times.
One day you do the oddest thing. You stop the car, start walking down the road. Your friend gets out and says, “Where are you going?” To this you reply, “I guess I was never meant to drive a car! I give up!”
Your friend would assure you that you born to be a good driver, but that you have to learn to drive here, in a different way. Beating yourself up about it would be of no value. But it is hard to do, especially at first, is it not? But that “born- to- be- a- good- driver” thing keeps you “driven” to learn.
We used to live out of our old self-centered life, thinking we were doing well. We crashed all the time and never arrived at any destination. In fact, we knew we were going in circles. The emptiness and hopelessness grew. We talked to others who said that if we will just go faster, that some day, it will mean something. But you figured out they did not know what they were talking about.
Sunday we will look at I John 2: 15-17. It is about driving in maddening circles; getting no where. We will describe the insanity but will not leave it there. We want to see how to live out of our new life in Christ. It is much like driving on the other side of the road, as they do in England. The advantage is we have that Friend, always there with us. He can actually grab the wheel at times, if need be. Yet, He wants us to learn to do the driving, forever in cooperation with Him. Over time you realize the driving was only a part of it. The conversations, with your Friend, along the way became the main thing. He also keep telling you about another place you have never seen. He used to live there, He says, and He said that you are going to be there one day also.
It would be an odd thing for you to think you could not drive a car, simply because you look like a novice driving one in England. After Christ gives you a new life you have all the power to live differently. Yet, that power does not make you instantly a great driver. You need that Friend along at all times. Over time, you will change into what you were always meant to be. In fact you start noticing that you are taking on the gracious character of your traveling companion. All this time you wanted to be a great driver in England, and so it is, but you realize you got much more than you bargained for.

Ephesians 3: 20-21 ” Now to Him who is able to do more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” 8/2/17 JWP