Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
March 28, 2010 - W1013

Previous week, we started  in the Book Acts.  Now we are going to continue and talk about finding common grounds when we find ourselves lost in life’s entanglement.  How many of you find yourselves sometimes in such a tangled mess you would like to have a reboot button like a computer. Okay…it would be a reboot button to reset back to your starting point again. We need something like that to correct us back or else we would make one bad decision to another. Then, one lie would lead to another. Once these are all happening, we can’t find our way back. Then you call it quits. Sometimes we find ourselves all tangled then we need to amputate relationships. Like for example, churches split.

Recently I was in California,  I learned of a Christian school in its early beginnings that they split. They couldn’t agree on something. I knew that this just didn’t happened overnight. It happened because they couldn’t find their common ground plus one person was unwilling to change. It was too far off to go back. We can morph and miss.

Another example of that is Prometheus. I don’t know much about Greek mythology but in high school I read about Prometheus who changed himself from one form to another he liked He changed to tree, then to a goat to a rock and then to a dog something else and he thought it was fun. He spent all his life trying find his way back. Afterwards he was too far off, he couldn’t find his way back.

This also happens in marriages. One day a couple would be so much in love, lovey-dovey and then next thing you know they are filing for a divorce. You would think, they would go back to the time they were so in love with each other and reset and start back to their common ground.

Well,  Acts 2 has an example of finding common ground even though they are of

different languages. Nevertheless, God brought them together to locate their common ground.

I will read from Acts 2:

“ When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord  in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how [is it that] we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God." So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?"

You know, one of the marks of the Holy Spirit in the Books of Act was people were given a common ground again. How many of you agree that we need to gear back or ratchet back? Yes, indeed. Anyway, we need to get our bearings back or we lose it otherwise. The Holy Spirit would give us a starting point. It was the old navigators in the pioneer days in the wilderness which would go up on the tall tree and tie a flag. When they were lost, the pioneers would look up and find the tree. When they couldn’t find their way back, they would meet back at the tree.

There are three fundamentals I will give you. They are…

1. Fundamentals never change.

An example is the Golden Rules. Do unto others like you would want done unto you. Is it in the Bible? Yes, the golden rules are in the book of Matthew 7 and Luke 6. The fundamentals are how you threat people with kindness, honesty, grace, respectful, and truthful. No matter if you are a Christian or not, it applies. They are timeless. You can be a Christian in a business, but if you are not  no one will do business with you.  

Billy Graham once shared this story about the time he when it was in a town and doing a crusade. He was trying to find the post office. He asked a boy. The boy gave him the directions. In turn, he invited the boy to come to his crusade. He told the boy, “ I am going to talk about how to get to heaven. Would you like to come?”  The boy directly answered  and said, “I don’t think I will come.” He was curious and asked the boy why not. The boy said, “How are you going to talk about getting to heaven when you can’t find the post office.” Wow… see, we need to do what we say. If we don’t know how to correct back, we won’t go back to out fundamentals. It could happen to churches and marriages. A few people came to me and ask why God is so stringent in His laws. Can’t he just relax His laws? Man changes anyway. God should change his laws. Why can’t  we alter things? Such as  the law of gravity. What if… you are eating with your spouse and then there is no gravity. She would be floating in the air. Another example is when the sun changes its rotation, if even just a little, in the same day, we would freeze and fry with sun’s heat.

There is a quote from the Bible about that explains just that…

Do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set. Proverbs 22:28

They are boundaries set by God. We can’t change them. For our God is constant and consistent and unchanging.  There are things we can’t change.

2. Stubbornness never works.

How many of you have tried being stubborn? Yeah…some of you of are stubborn.  It is not the same as persistence. Persistence is commitment. Persistence leads to improvement but not stubbornness. Stubbornness is refusal to change even though you know it is beneficial. You have invested so much in it that that you refuse to change. An example of that is that in Mark 6. King Herod imprisoned John the Baptist because John the Baptist told him the truth. King Herod was having an affair with his brother’s wife. He imprisoned him. The story goes that Herod had a party and Salome was dancing for the king and his quest. Then the king was so happy with her performance that he told her that she could ask anything. In turn Salome, ask her mother. Herodias wanted the head of John the Baptist. In Mark 6, it was said that King Herod was sorry but since he wanted to stick to his oath and not to offend his guest he did what he did. He was stubborn.

I was traveling this week through Tennessee and check out other colleges and talk to others about it. I am not an expert about running a college. I spoke to some friends and ask their opinion. I spoke to Governor Mike Huckabee. One of points in the conversation that was important was about disengage church don’t involve in the civics affairs. We need to be like Jesus. Jesus said we need to be the salt of the earth. We need to be involved in the community.

3. Jesus is always right.

There will be times in your marriage there will be trials and you need to revert back to the tree…and reset back to your common ground, Jesus. In any other relationships, you do the same, you need to navigate through your relationship with focus on the Lord.  

In conclusion, let me tell you the story of the smoke alarm. Anna and I are in a heated fight. I was right! Just kidding. Anyway, I spoke to my brother about it. I asked him about his marriage. He said, “when we fight. I hold her hands and pray.” As we were sleeping one night, Anna was on the other side of the bed and I was on the other. God kept telling me to apologize and say sorry. But I never got to it. I was stubborn. Then, I ask Anna if we could pray. She said she want that. We did. I prayed like a Baptist preacher. And then as we were praying the smoke alarm went off. It was hard to stop it. My wife started laughing. She said “ As we were praying, we got the devil so good; the devil ran so fast that he set the smoke alarm off.” It brought us to the same common ground. I am grateful.

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1. What are the three fundamentals of finding our common ground? Discuss and give one

example.

2. Is the Golden Rule in the Bible? Where is it located?

3. Is persistence the same as stubbornness? Explain your answer.

4. What does Proverbs 22:28 say about fundamentals?

5. What was King Herod’s misgivings concerning John the Baptist?