Good Monday Morning To You!
The other day I told Bess about a pet chicken we had when I was a kid. He was a rooster named Theodore. My younger brother named him after a member of his favorite band --- Alvin and the Chipmunks. I believe to this day that is still his favorite group. Now I’m sure many of you who grew up in the country had farm pets. Some of you might even have had a pet chicken. This is not strange for a country child. I, however, am a city boy. I grew up in Cincinnati, often living inside city limits. A pet chicken was a bit of a rarity.
Theodore was no ordinary chicken; he had a very colorful beginning. When I was a kid, we lived near a dime store called Ben Franklin’s. Every year at Easter, we would go there and they had colored little baby chicks for sale. There were red ones, blue ones, green ones, and yellow ones. Theodore was a bright yellow baby. Usually these birds only lived a few days then died. It was later determined that the dye used to color them was poisonous to them. The practice was stopped years ago, and I fully support the decision. However, occasionally a chick would live, and Theodore did.
We lived in a village inside Cincy called Elmwood Place. Elmwood Place would remind you of Andy and Barney’s Mayberry. We had a big house and a big yard. Theodore ruled the yard. Dad, Greg, and I could move freely around the yard, but not Mom. Theodore had her number. If she stepped outside, he’d chase her back in. If she came out to hang laundry, Theodore would run her all over the yard. It was one of the funniest sights I have ever seen. Here is this grown woman, running all around her yard, in plain sight of the neighbors with this chicken chasing after her squawking and flapping his wings.
Mom wasn’t the only one Theodore kept at bay. The poor mailman was ran off each time he even walked by on the sidewalk. Most mailmen have stories they can tell about being chased by dogs, but not at 403 Oak Street. At our house, our guard chicklen was on duty. I asked Mom the other day where Theodore stayed at night. I know she was not about to share her living room with poor Theodore. She said he stayed on the back porch at night. Early in the morning, the milkman would come and deliver our milk. He sat the milk inside a milk box very close to Theodore, but I do not recall our pet chicken ever giving him any problems. He only tormented Mom, the mailman, and my best friend Johnny Miller’s pet cat, Tabby.
Tabby was a beautiful long hair solid white cat. Tabby, we called her Tebby, was as gentle a cat as you’d find anywhere. Tabby would come next door into our yard on occasion, and Theodore would go to war. Nobody ever told Theodore that cats ate birds and that he was one. Fortunately for him, no one ever told Tabby either. He would latch onto her tail and start pulling out the hairs. Tabby would go back home, and Theodore would stay in his yard. He was good about that.
We never needed an alarm clock. Theodore would crow at the top of his lungs every morning. The neighbors didn’t need alarm clocks either. So what is the point to my story? Absolutely nothing! I just thought I’d share it with you.
Yesterday at Friendship Harmony was really good. We tried something new: we sang to CD recordings of hymns. Karan Berry had been so gracious in coming to play for us, but we were keeping her from the church where she and her son attend. Hopefully, someone from the congregation will step forward and play the piano, but until then, the recorded music worked pretty well. People seemed to enjoy it, and the tracks were easy to sing to. It was also Fellowship Dinner day. Our ladies put a fine meal out for us. I do believe they just keep on getting better and better! Good fellowship, good food, and a great service at Friendship Harmony! (My last sentence is an incomplete sentence on purpose, so don’t any of you English teachers write and fuss at me.)
I preached part three of my three part series on Victorious People. We looked at Victory Over Self. I said that self is the toughest enemy we must defeat. Here are the notes. I hope they are of benefit to you.
Victorious Over Self ©
2 Cor. 2:14; Various
Victorious People Series 3 of 4 By Victor Cooper
9/10-5/12
Intro: In this four part series, we are going to see how believers are victorious over Satan, sin, self, and sorrow. No believer needs to live a defeated life. We are a victorious people so lets start believing it and living it.
In order to be victorious over self,
One must first be victorious
Over Satan, and over sin.
I. What a self centered life looks like.
A. It is a life that has all the answers.
Numbers 12:2 And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.
1. It was motivated by pride.
2. It was motivated by envy.
B. It is a life that calls attention to itself --- even over God.
1. “Look at me!” Daniel 4:30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
New Testament example --- Luke 12:16-20 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: [17] And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? [18] And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. [19] And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. [20] But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
Illustration 11195. Roosevelt’s Drive
Theodore Roosevelt, sometimes known as Roosevelt the First, was a President who knew his value; he did not cheapen himself by underestimating it. “Father always had to be the center of attention,” said one of his children. “When he went to a wedding, he wanted to be the bride. When he went to a funeral, he was sorry that he couldn’t be the corpse.” Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations
2. God is placed under self. Deut. 8:14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
II. The self centered life will ultimately fail.
A.. Lucifer learned that lesson. Isaiah 14:13-15 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. [15] Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
B. Edom learned that lesson. Obadiah 1:4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.
1. Edom was descended from Esau, making Edom and Israel family. That made their treachery against Israel worse.
2. Self exultation makes the fall further and harder.
Pastor Victor Cooper
C. The Church of Laodicea will learn that lesson Rev. 3:14-17 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; [15] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. [16] So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. [17] Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
D. “Self” is often more difficult to defeat than is Satan.
1. People are willing to fight Satan. He’s a natural enemy. However, they are not willing to fight themselves.
Pastor Vic Cooper
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III. Self can be defeated. 2 Cor. 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
A. “…that you … may abound…”
1. You can do it because the grace to do so comes from Christ.
B. Paul told the Romans it was called being a living sacrifice.
1. Sacrificed animals were dead, thus they had no choice.
2. A living sacrifice does have a choice.
Radio preacher Steve Brown says that the trouble with most living sacrifices is that they keep jumping off the altar.
C. When self is at its weakest, Christ’s strength is at its strongest.
2 Cor. 12:9-10 (ESV) But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
1. Paul is saying not to shun weakness, but to embrace it!
(a) When was the last time you heard a politician bragging about their weaknesses?
2. At our weakest point we are at our strongest --- as long as it is through Christ’s strength.
I do hope you will have a good and joyous week. This coming Sunday I will conclude the Victorious People Series with the message, Victorious Over Sorrow. We have all had sorrowful events in our lives, but I want you to know you can have victory in spite of sad circumstances. For those of you who are beginning to make your way down to Florida for the winter, be safe as you travel. We don’t want anything to happen to you. Whether you’re here or not, I’ll see you next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!!
