Derek Grier - Mount Crumpit
Now, today we're gonna be in Hebrews 12:14, and together we're gonna learn how to avoid living our lives on Mount Crumpet. But it's gonna be a little more of a Bible study. We're gonna really dig into the scriptures today as we proceed.
Father, I ask that you open ears and eyes today. Father cause us not to have spent time in church but really invested time in church. May it be that we leave here with dividends and value, all because you open our ears to hear the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. We all say... amen.
In verse 14, the writer of Hebrew says, "Pursue peace with all people". Now, the word translated pursue here was originally used to describe in the Greek language, a hunter following the tracks or the scent of an animal. You know, our peace as believers is grounded exclusively on the cross of Jesus Christ. However, our peace with people is a whole other thing. According to the scripture, it must be vigorously pursued. Peace in a relationship, in a church, in a family, in a community, is never by accident but the result of attention, investment, and perseverance. Now you can pray for peace all you want, but it seldom comes unless you take some steps to go after it.
Now in my house, you know, the way we operate is part of the culture of our home. In order for us to maintain peace we've learned to keep short accounts. How many of y'all like sneaky people? I don't like sneaky people. If you got a problem me, I don't want to hear six months later that you had a problem me six months ago where I can't remember, I don't know what you're talking about. You know what I'm saying? And I gotta go through my mind and put all the pieces together. So our rule is don't let the sun go down on your wrath, on your anger. It says, "Pursue peace", this is the tough one, "with all people".
Not just people like you and not just people who like you. There are always three types of people in each of our lives, those who help us in difficult times, those who left us in difficult times and those who put us through difficult times. We see here that this scripture is a tall order because God wants us to pursue peace with each of these categories of people. Now, Romans 12:18 says the same thing with the caveat that has helped me a whole lot in my life. It begins saying the same principle with a little more insight. It says, "If it is", what? Possible. If, lets us know it's not always... possible.
Some people, no matter what you do they're gonna have an issue with you. All right? So the bad news is, we're not gonna be liked by everyone. The good news is, the great ones never are. Here's a reality check. If some people didn't even like Jesus, and the spotless perfect lamb of God why are we so surprised and so amazed, so crushed balling that a few people don't like us? He said, "If it is possible, as much as it depends on you". Meaning, make sure the reason that people don't like you is 'cause you're a jerk. Make sure it's 'cause they're a jerk. That's what that, all right, you didn't see that in the text? All right. It's right there. "As much as it depends on you or to the best of your ability, live peaceably" it says "all men" again.
"With all men", this doesn't mean that you have to agree with the person. It doesn't mean you always have to condone everything they say and everything they do. It doesn't mean that you have to discard your own beliefs. What it means is we can disagree without being what? Disagreeable. When I was young, I admired the strong, I admired the intelligent. But as I get older, I admire the kind. It's so rare to find people that have gone through life and have maintained a tender heart. It's so rare to meet people that can still put themselves in someone else's shoes. "If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peacefully with" what? "All men".
Let's go back to Hebrews 12:14. Again, it says, "Pursue peace with all people". Again, a little Bible study here, but then it adds "and holiness". Holiness is a big word, and it simply means to be separate, to be distinct, or better put, to be different. God does not want His people or His children to be afraid of being different. Because this is in fact the way God made us. If anything, we should be afraid of being exactly like everyone else. We will never influence this world by being exactly like it. There ought to be some distinctions.
Now, not saying some people take this to the extreme. Now, my wife and I, there's some differences between us, differences that I happen to love between us, but there are differences. But here's the deal. My wife, by virtue of her being a females not in a whole other category, that we are both humans. Okay and within the human species there's these complimentary genders. You hear what I'm saying? And they compliment each other and they're important, and the difference is the attraction one to... Are you still with me?
Okay. All right. But some of us, we become believers, we're no longer the same species. Can't nobody differ, we've gone to a whole other category. I mean, we don't eat, we don't talk, we don't laugh, we don't smile, we don't listen, we don't touch, we don't taste, and we go to these extremes. And again, no one can identify. However, there should be a distinction, something that makes us different by virtue of the fact that God's on the inside. It says, "Without which", speaking of holiness, "no one will see the" what?
Lord, what the Bible's saying there is no one's gonna see Jesus in you until you stop acting like the devil. Until you start maintaining and caring and sensitive heart in this cruel world, you will be just like everybody else. God wants us to be a distinction. Yeah, we look like every, Jesus himself looked like just another ordinary human being. But there was a difference. When people hurt Him, love came out. When people attacked Him, wisdom came out. And we don't wanna be like the world. You bite me, I bite you. We want to be distinct and different. Always be who God created you to be. Why? Because in an original is always worth more than a copy. And the moment we start trying to be exactly like everybody else, we lose our value in the kingdom.
Verse 15 and this is where we go in into second gear in Bible study here, it says, "Looking carefully". The word used here is, episkopos, episkopos. And there's two words in this word, episkopos. The first word is epi, which means, over. The second word is skopos, meaning to look, like telescope, microscope. So the combination epi and skopos means to overlook or to oversee. So he's saying basically, "We want you to oversee some points that are about to follow".
Actually, this is the word used in scripture that's translated, bishop. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us that we are actually the bishops of our own souls. What the Bible's teaching us is that God holds no one else responsible for my long term emotional state, but me. You are the only one responsible for your emotions. Nobody else is responsible. Do you understand? The way I feel is the way I feel. I am the captain of my ship. Do you understand? What I'm trying to say is own your life. And the truth that's gonna set you free today is you don't have to be a certain way. You can be the way God wants you to be. You can respond how God wants you to respond. I know it's tough, but we're dealing with some truth here.
"Lest any root of" what? Bitterness, this is what happened to the Grinch here. And what they said was, "When the Grinch was a child, he was an orphan, and when Christmas came around he'd watch all the other kids, you know, play with family, and get gifts from the parents". He never got gifts and he never had a family, and he had these unresolved childhood issues. But my Bible tells me, "Is when I was a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish thing".
Now here's the deal. Here's the deal. How can we call ourselves a grownup still stuck on stuff that happened we were nine, 10, or 12? Let me tell you more, gonna tell you more. Our maturity level grows until that point we become offended. If you were offended at 12 and hadn't got over it, your maturity level in that area stays about 12. That's why grown folks still act like children. I mean, some of us, we'll go back to 25 immediately, 'cause something happened at 25 we couldn't get past, we never matured past that.
Same thing in a marriage. Y'all were good until five years in something happened, and then you couldn't get past that thing that happened, and your relationship never matured beyond age five. If we don't resolve the disappointment, the dissatisfaction, the discouragement properly, it ends up getting lodged and rooted in our souls. He continues the word picture, "Lest any root of bitterness" watch this, "springing up".
This is a picture of a little plant, just, you know, starting to sprout, and just starting to grow. It isn't a large plant yet, it's not a tree, you know, it's not big, but it's breaking through the soil, and starting to peek out at the world. Here's the deal. The fact that this thing is growing in your soil means at some point there was a seed hidden in that same soil. And if we don't deal with it at seed and root level, we're gonna find ourselves in a little bit of trouble. Here's how I deal with this. When I start hearing myself constantly saying negative things about a person, about a place, about any noun and any issue, I know something's going on on the inside.
It says, "And by this, not just one person but many people become defiled". Whenever we experience pain, we have four options. Number one, we bury it by avoiding the subject, pretending it didn't happen. Just, you know, going on and just pushing it aside. And some of us are still mad at our parents because when we were young, we told them something, and they buried it, and we think because they buried it, they don't love us. Not necessarily so. Humans, we're just weird, and we only have few ways to respond to issues. And perhaps your parents just did not have enough tools in in their toolbox to address the issue properly. I'm not excusing it and there's no excuse for not dealing with issues in life. But we have four options when we're hurting.
Number one, bury it. Number two, we can numb it with busyness, with entertainment, with addictions, anything to distract us from the pain. You know, I'm gonna buy a new car so I can have that new car smell for at least two months. So I keep thinking about my accomplishments so I don't have to think about what's really going on on the inside of me. You know, maybe I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna go on a shopping spree, and buy all this stuff so I don't have to think about what's really, really, really hurting me. And we do things to numb the pain.
The third thing we do is transfer it. We transfer it to our friends, the ones we love the most typically, our family, by making their lives often a living hell. But the fourth thing is the last option, it's the hardest option, but it's the most courageous option. The fourth choice is to feel it. Mark 5:23 tells us, when Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh, which was a narcotic, to help Him deal with the pain of His particular cross, He refused. It's why I admire Jesus so much.
Oh, I love Him, but I salute Him, dear God. Jesus wanted to feel fully everything required for our salvation. He didn't wanna be spared a pain. He said, "You are worth it to me. Everything that it cost for you to be free, I'm gonna feel it". Dear God. What type of human being, God became man on that cross. And He didn't drink. And the Bible actually says, "He was offered a cup twice", two different substances in the cup but the last time He accepted the cup it was really for Him to keep His consciousness even longer.
Jesus, the strength, the power. I mean, come on. If anyone on the cross, I mean, if anyone in history had an excuse to get a break, if anyone had an excuse to, you know, to have the pain numbed just a little bit, it was the perfect Jesus, but He refused and He felt it. Nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, one o'clock, three o'clock, finally it is finished. "And by this many become defiled".
Now, I think the Grinch tried to bury his childhood pain by becoming the recluse he became on Mount Crumpet. It's like, "Well, if I get away from people they'll never hurt me anymore, and I won't have to go through the pain. I won't have to see families and all the rest. So, the way I'm gonna deal with my pain is to bury it, I'm just gonna avoid people that can cause me pain. It's just gonna be me and this animal". But also the second option on how we deal with pain.
The challenges since Dr. Seuss book was a children's story. He couldn't tell us all the things that the Grinch might've done to try to numb his pain. We don't know if Ray Ray dropped stuff off once a week. We don't know if Lola came by, you know, two or three nights a week. We have no clue. But on Christmas Eve, he did try to transfer his pain by trying to make the people of Whoville as miserable as he was. And again, the reality is hurt people, hurt people.
And what I'm learning to do as I'm trying to mature is when someone does something wounding, instead of saying, "What you did to me", I start thinking, "Man somebody must have hurt you. What happened in your life to make you do something like that"? Then it says again, but it uses a different word. "And by this many" meaning, this affects a lot of people, "become defiled". I'm here to tell you today, there is a way to get out of Oscar's garbage can, remember Oscar was the grump on Sesame Street. You can get off of Mount Crumpet, Mount Grouch, Mount Grump, Mount hurt, Mount pain. (upbeat music) But the way of escape and the way down is found in one word, forgiveness.