03012015HowToTellWhetherIAmTheDifficultPersonDonRuhl
How to Tell Whether I Am the Difficult Person
We know when others are difficult, but do we know when we are difficult?
First Corinthians 13.4–8a
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • February 22, In the year of our Lord, 2015
Prelude:
- Last month we learned how to deal with difficult people.
- What if we are the difficult ones?
- Can I know whether I am the difficult one?
- What shall we do about it?
Persuasion:
- First Corinthians 13.4–8a – Replace “love” with your name
4 [Don] suffers long and is kind; [Don] does not envy; [Don] does not parade [himself], [Don] is not puffed up; 5 [Don] does not behave rudely, [Don] does not seek its own, [Don] is not provoked, [Don] thinks no evil; 6 [Don] does not rejoice in iniquity, but [Don] rejoices in the truth; 7 [Don] bears all things, [Don] believes all things, [Don] hopes all things, [Don] endures all things. 8 [Don] never fails… (1Co 134–8a).
- Psalm 139.23–24 – Ask God to show you
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psa 139.23–24)
- Will God answer such a prayer?
- Yes, He will:
- He is the One who teaches us to repent of wickedness.
- He is the One whose will our prayers must consider.
- Therefore, if we pray for Him to show us whether we are difficult,
- He will do it, because
- it is His will and
- He wants us to repent of any and all evil within us.
- Observe how others react to you
- We often do not see ourselves as others see us.
- We are biased for ourselves,
25 There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
(Pro 16.25)6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness,
But who can find a faithful man?
(Pro 20.6)
- Listen to the Book of Proverbs
- Watch Jesus and the Pharisees
- As you watch them in action,
- do you find yourself imitating Jesus or the Pharisees?
- Do you exhibit the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit?
- Galatians 5.19–23 Your name for “the flesh” and “the Spirit”
- Does love top a list of godly characteristics in your life?
- Colossians 3.12–14
- Do you exhibit wisdom and understanding?
- James 5.13–18
- Do you boast in your oddness, difficult nature, uncooperative spirit, et al.?
- Can you admit you are wrong?
- Do you blame others for your wrong?
- Do you acknowledge faults, but claim that others made you do what you did?
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