Actions Speak Louder than Words - Lesson 3 - ... in Trusting Ourselves

What is the farthest you have gone out of your way for someone else?
Possibly in giving them a ride somewhere.
What has been the longest you have waited for someone
and remained quiet and happy when they arrived?

What is the most inconvenienced you have been for someone else
And expected nothing in return.

You don’t have to answer this question out loud,
Have you ever fasted?
Have you ever gone a day without eating?
Have you ever chosen to skip a meal.
What is the longest you have gone without eating?

Possibly you don’t trust the Lord.

Any comments?





Opening thoughts Part 2

1 Corinthians 4:20, ‘For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.’

We have been talking about our actions for the past two weeks.
We can try to convince others of our heart’s intentions with words like…
I wanted to do that …
I was trying to do this …
I should have …
I was going to …

As we have titled this series of lessons.
Actions speak louder than words.

If actions speak louder than words, I believe
Our inactivity screams

It is easier to make a decision follow through with it and have it be wrong.
Than to live thinking,
What if …
If only I …
I should have …
I was going to …
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

What about our inactions?
Does anyone else have any opening thoughts?





When I speak of inactivity I don’t necessarily mean slothfulness
Or as Mike likes to call it … general malaise.

Possibly we forget.
Possibly we got too busy.
Possibly we got too tired.

Galatians 6:9, ‘And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.’

Can you share any advice with us here …





It does get tiring,
It does get exhausting,
But if you are anything like me you are your own worst enemy.
And by the time you are done beating yourself up
You have little energy to do anything else.

Don’t give up.
If it is of God, He will give you the strength to do it.

Hebrews 12:3, ‘For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.’

Your thoughts …





Testimony of asking Pastor to give me an example of a blessing
as I did not know what one was.

Here is something I just got in the mail the other day.
I am reading this to you to not give up.

Article from Cody.



1 Corinthians 15:58, ‘Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.’

Don’t give up.
I only get to tuck Cody in at night and do bed time prayers with him 4 times a month.
Autumn and Becca 6 times a month.

Don’t ever be too tired to remind your kids to brush their teeth at night.
If they ask you to read with them don’t you dare tell them you are too tired.
And don’t ever be to shy or nervous to talk to them about boys or girls.
And don’t ever make excuses for not praying with them.


James 1:22, ‘But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.’

Sometimes we come up with some pretty extravagant excuses.
We exhaust so much energy rehearsing them.
The Lord doesn’t believe them what of others?

What have we been fooling ourselves with for too long?
Does anyone feel lead to share something here?





by: Chris Kilroy

January 13, 1982 brought one of the worst blizzards in history to Washington, D.C. Businesses closed early, schools closed their doors, and even Congress recessed early. Washington's National Airport had been closed all morning, but re-opened by 12:00 pm. Sitting at gate B12 was Boeing 737-222B, in command of the aircraft, were Capt. Larry Wheaton and First Officer Roger Pettit, both relatively young pilots enjoying their new jobs at Air Florida. The flight was scheduled to depart at 2:15, but both men knew that time would come and go Just before 1:40 pm, the airport was closed so that crews could plow the field's one instrument runway,

It was scheduled to re-open at 2:30. Despite the delay, Air Florida elected to begin the boarding process, and all passengers were on board by 2:30. Meanwhile, Capt. Wheaton had ordered de-icing to begin. The tower told him to expect a further delay, and he requested that de-icing be halted. 'Palm 90' was number 11 for departure when the airport reopened.

At 3:00, Wheaton instructed de-icing to continue, and the job was done by 3:10. Ground personnel reported only a "light dusting" of snow on the wings. At 3:23 pm, 'Palm 90' was cleared to push from the gate and the towing equipment was attached. Due to the deep accumulations of snow, however, the TUG was unsuccesful in its attempts to push the aircraft, and contrary to company policy, Wheaton elected to use the reverse thrust to back the airplane out of the gate. The reversers were engaged for a minute and a half, but only succeeded in sucking large amounts of storm debris into the engines. Finally, cooler heads prevailed, and a TUG with chains attached was called in. The aircraft was successfully pushed back.

'Palm 90' then proceeded to taxi into position behind a New York Air DC-9, the last of sixteen aircraft in line for takeoff. With a light snow still falling, Wheaton decided to use the hot exhaust from the preceeding DC-9's engines to melt the snow off the wings, which in the end only had the effect of pushing it to the trailing portion of the wing to refreeze. The aircraft's anti-ice system was unable to de-ice this portion of the wing, not that it made any difference.
While running through the takeoff checklist, the following conversation took place:CAM-2: Air conditioning and pressurization?
CAM-1: Set.
CAM-2: Engine anti-ice?
CAM-1: Off.

When the Cockpit Voice Recorder tape was played back after recovery, there was much disagreement about Capt. Wheaton's response to "anti-ice." Many of the investigators could not accept the fact that, despite the freezing 20 degree temperatures and 25+ inches of snow on the ground, Wheaton said "off." The tapes were taken to the FBI Labs in Washington for analasys, and it was concluded that the word was, in fact, "off." Apparently, despite the weather, the crew had forgotten to activate the anti-ice systems.

At 3:59 pm, 'Palm 90' was cleared for takeoff with the remark "no delay on departure, if you will, traffic's two and a half out for the runway," added a few seconds later by ATC. Pettit advanced the throttles, and quickly responded "real cold, real cold," implying that the engines reached the takeoff EPR of 2.04 before the throttles had been fully advanced. Throughout the entire takeoff roll, the First Officer tried to inform the Captain that something wasn't right, but it was in vain. Wheaton was sure everything was in order:



15:59:51 CAM-1 It's spooled. Real cold, real cold.
15:59:58 CAM-2 God, look at that thing. That don't seem right, does it? Uh, that's not right.
16:00:09 CAM-1 Yes it is, there's eighty.
16:00:10 CAM-2 Naw, I don't think that's right. Ah, maybe it is.
16:00:21 CAM-1 Hundred and twenty.
16:00:23 CAM-2 I don't know.
16:00:31 CAM-1 Vee-one. Easy, vee-two.

At rotation speed, the aircraft pitched up sharply, causing Wheaton to reply "easy." It was a known fact that ice buildup on the wings of a 737 can cause a tendancy to pitch up. Pettit's correction of the nose-up attitude, however, failed to resolve the problem and the stickshaker immediately began to sound. Wheaton called "Forward, forward, easy. We only want 500," refering to the altitude at which the airplane had to be to make the 40 degree turn to the left around the Washington Monument and the restricted airspace over the Capitol.

"Come on. Forward, forward. Just barely climb," exclaimed Wheaton as the aircraft continued to stall. Moments later the aircraft was no longer climbing, but falling back to earth.

"Stalling, we're falling."
"Larry, we're going down Larry."
"I know it."

These are the last words spoken from the cockpit of 'Palm 90.' The aircraft came down directly on top of the 14th Street Bridge, which spans the Potomac River and is a major route from the Virginia suburbs into the city. Four automobiles were crushed, resulting in five deaths on the ground. The aircraft then impacted the icy water and quickly sank to the bottom. In the hours after the crash, only four passengers and a Flight Attendant would be pulled alive from the icy water.

The investigation of the crash concluded that the combination of the crew's use of thrust reverse on the ground, and their failure to active the engine anti-ice system, caused the crash. By failing to activate the engine anti-ice, the large amouts of snow and ice that were sucked into the engines during reverse thrust use was allowed to remain there, unchallenged. The ice buildup on the compressor inlet pressure probe, the probe which measures engine power, can cause false readings, as was the case here. The indications in the cockpit showed an Engine Pressure Ratio of 2.04, while the power plants were in reality only producing 1.70 EPR, or about 70% of available power. The combination of the ice covered wings and low power caused an immediate stall on takeoff that resulted in 74 lives lost.



Actions speak louder than words.
They have lasting effects.
Some good and some bad.

There are no neutral words and I also believe no neutral actions.

Inactivity speak louder than words also.
With just as lasting effects.
Mostly bad.
And usually affect others and if we are alive we have to live with it.

Sure time will heal the pain.
Eventually you will dwell on it less and less.
Hopefully forget about some events all together.

Psalm 34:14, ‘Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.’


If any of you saw the rescue footage from that accident here is what you could witness.

Story of the man jumping the fridgid water...





How long can you stand by and do nothing.
What is the distance you will drive for someone else and still not be inconvenienced?

I don’t want us to be those people on the bridge
watching those people fight to stay alive and eventually die.
Sure we can say we tried to help.
Sure we could say we did all we could.

I want us to be the man who jumped in the water.
I believe he would rather have died trying to save that woman
than live with the fact that he did nothing.

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.



Closing thoughts

Let’s stop beating ourselves up about the past.
In the words of Autumn Starks, build a bridge and get over it.

Let’s stop making excuses.
If we did the best we could we can rest in that.
If we did not do all we could we can ask the Lord to forgive us
And then rest.

Don’t give up.
Do more today than yesterday.
Do more tomorrow than today.
And if you are doing what the Lord has asked you to do
or told you to do
you will not be doing it alone.

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