Garbage In, Garbage Out

August 19, 2010

1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15 - 20 John 6:51-58

Scripture reading: Ephesians 5:15-20

15

Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lords will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you know by now, for me, the road to becoming a pastor began with getting a degree in engineering. Two of the things that I learned were how to write computer programs, and how to build electronic devices out of component chips. Within each of these subjects there are certain types of computer chips and certain programming operations that have labels like FIFO (pronounced Fie-Foe) and FILO (pronounced Fie-Low). FIFO stands for First In-Last Out which means that the first data that is stored in a FIFO chip is the first data that will come out of it when you are reading it. FILO chips are, First In, Last Out. This sort of terminology later led to a fundamental rule of computer programming, engineering, and many other disciplines GIGO (Guy-Go), Garbage in, garbage out. If your program is reading the wrong file, regardless of whether or not its actual computations are working flawlessly, the result will still be garbage. If a psychologist or a sociologist constructs a survey or a study and makes an error in the survey or in the way that the study was conducted, the results are worthless. This is true of many things that we all do, if you give your tax preparer the wrong information, the tax return that he prepares, although it is mathematically correct, is still wrong. In our scripture today we discover that God warns Solomon of just this sort of thing. We begin in 1 Kings Chapter 2 where we learn that King David has died and his son, Solomon, has been crowned as king in his place (1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14)
10

Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. 11 He had reigned forty years over Israelseven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.
3

Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
4

The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, Ask for whatever you want me to give you.
6

Solomon answered, You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 1

Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?
10

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for both wealth and honor so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life. First, we hear the part of the story that is familiar to many of us, Solomon asks for discernment instead money, or power, or military victory. God is pleased that Solomons first concern is for the welfare of Gods people and not for himself and so God blesses Solomon with a level of discernment and wisdom that is greater than any human being has had before or since, and God also gives Solomon many of the things that he did not ask for, money, and power, and honor. But God also gives Solomon a warning. God says, And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life. God warns Solomon that if he can manage to live his life in obedience to God then he will give Solomon a long life just he gave to Solomons father, David. Now, we all know that David wasnt perfect. We just recently spoke of Davids failure when he had an affair with Bathsheba and then had her husband deliberately killed in battle to cover it up. Even so, David was known as a man after Gods own heart, not a perfect man, but one who, generally, lived his life the way that God asked him to live. In this warning, we see that God isnt asking Solomon to be perfect, but we also see that God expects the leader of his people to live his life according to the rules. The problem, if you know the story of Solomon, is that Solomon follows the way of God for a while, but ultimately follows a more politically prudent path and seeks to protect his country through treaties with other nations and by marrying the daughters of foreign kings. Eventually one or more of these foreign born wives, women who were raised worshipping foreign gods, leads Solomon astray so that he begins to worship other gods, he eventually neglects the God of his father, David and Gods blessing passes away from Solomon, away from his family and away from Israel. Even here we see the pattern, good in good out, garbage in garbage out. In Pauls letter to the church in Ephesus, which was read this morning in our scripture reading, we heard this same sort of warning. (Ephesians 5:15-20)
15

Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lords will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, Be careful how you live. Be careful what sorts of things you put into your life because what you put into it has an effect on what you get out of it. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Paul warns the church (thats us) that doing dumb stuff often leads to doing more dumb stuff. Participating in sinful activities generally leads to more sinful stuff. Instead, Paul argues, be filled with the Spirit. Fill your life with good stuff. Listen to good wholesome music (that doesnt mean boring, just pure), read books that will teach you and help you to grow, and give thanks for the things that God has given to you. Paul knew that filling our lives with garbage will lead to more garbage, but filling our lives with good things will lead to more good things. To put this another way, my friend Tod Moses is a singer and a song writer. In one of his songs he put this principle like this, Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas. That sort of sums it up doesnt it? 2

Finally, in John 6:51-58, we hear from Jesus.

51

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
52

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

53

Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus teaches that he is the bread of life, filling our lives with him will bring us eternal life. We should fill ourselves with Jesus just as Moses and the Israelites filled themselves with manna in the desert. Fill yourself with the bread of life, this is what will sustain you and give you strength when life is hard. Garbage in, garbage out. Good in, good out. Jesus in, heaven out. What you do with your time matters. What you fill your days with matters. What you put into your life matters. These same principles are found throughout scripture: A wicked person earns deceptive wages, but the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward. (Proverbs 11:18) Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity (Proverbs 22:8) Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. (2 Corinthians 9:6) It matters whether or not you read your Bible. It matters whether or not you choose to watch television shows and movies that are full of foul language and half-naked women. What you put into your life matters. Your life is very much like a tube of toothpaste. When your life is under pressure, what you put into it will be what comes back out. If you come to church for an hour once a week and fill the rest of your life with garbage, you cant expect that you are going to walk on water when the storms come. What you put into your life is what you will get back out when things get tough. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (Galatians 6:7) Garbage in, Garbage out. Good in, good out. Jesus in, heaven out.

You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry heights in Massillon, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.