August 20, Lesson: Matthew 27.1-10

Sermon Title: When Life Appears Hopeless

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. Lobster Tales (1)

A seafood restaurant had a sign in the window that read, "Big Lobster Tales, $5 each."

Amazed at the great value, a man stopped in and asked the waitress, "Five dollars each for lobster tails -- is that correct?"

"Yes," she said. "It's our special just for today."

"Well," he said, "they must be little lobster tails."

"No," she replied, "it's the really big lobster."

"Are you sure they aren't green lobster tails -- and a little bit tough?"

"No," she said, "it's the really big red lobster."

"Big red lobster tails, $5 each?" he said, amazed. "They must be old lobster tails!"

"No, they're definitely today's."

"Today's big red lobster tails -- $5 each?" he repeated, astounded.

"Yes," she insisted.

"Well, here's my five dollars," he said. "I'll take one."

She took the money and led him to a table where she invited him to sit down. She then sat down next to him, put her hand on his shoulder, leaned over close to him, and said, "Once upon a time there was a really big red lobster..."

  1. What you have here is a difference of mind sets.

    1. The customer has one mind set.

      1. He is conceiving of a lobster tail to eat.

      2. He wants to make sure that it is large, tender and fresh.

    2. The waitress has something entirely different in mind.

  2. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines mind set as:

    1. 1 : a mental attitude or inclination

    2. 2 : a fixed state of mind

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Mind set is a very important component of our lives.

    1. It determines the quality of your experience.

    2. It limits or expands the state of you mental and emotional health.

Once upon a time, there were two men, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Thompson, both seriously ill in the same room of a great hospital. Both had to be kept unusually quiet and still - no reading, no radio, certainly no television and no visitors. Their only entertainment was to talk to each other.

Mr. Thompson had to spend all his time flat on his back. Mr. Wilson, on the other hand, as part of his treatment, was allowed to sit up in bed for an hour each day. His bed was next to the window, and every afternoon, when he was propped up for his hour, he would pass the time by describing to Mr. Thompson what he could see outside. And Mr. Thompson began to live for those hours. Mr. Wilson would look out the window and describe ...

- a beautiful park with a lake, where there were ducks and swans and children throwing them bread and sailing model boats;

- softball games and football games and kites flying;

- flowers and trees and stretches of grass and young lovers walking hand-in-hand;

- the skyline of the city off in the distance and the cars and horse-drawn carriages making their way through the park.

One day, there was a parade, and Mr. Wilson described every float, every band and all the participants in the procession. Mr. Thompson listened intently, enjoying every minute. He could visualize everything Mr. Wilson described.

Then one afternoon, Mr. Thompson thought to himself: Just wait a minute! Why should Wilson have all the fun? Why does he have all the pleasure? Why does he get to be by the window? In a few days, Mr. Thompson turned sour. He was bitter, angry, resentful. He brooded and seethed. He became obsessed with wanting to be by the window! And each passing hour, he became more and more resentful of Mr. Wilson.

Then one night, quite suddenly, Mr. Wilson died. His body was taken away the next morning. As soon as it seemed decent, Mr. Thompson asked if he could be moved to the bed next to the window. So they moved him, tucked him in, made him quite comfortable and left him alone. The minute they'd gone, Mr. Thompson struggled to prop himself up on one elbow so he could look out the window. Imagine his surprise. It faced a blank brick wall!

--James Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not to Be True (Nashville: Dimensions For Living, 1994), 97-99.

      1. Mr. Thompson has a problem with his mind set.

        1. He is bitter, angry, and resentful.

        2. He broods and seethes.

        3. He is obsessed with being by the window.

        4. He wants what Mr. Wilson had, and he got it.

      2. He looked only to find a brick wall.

      3. And that's the truth.

      4. And, that's what often happens when our mind set is negative, we get a brick wall, instead.

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  1. There is significant conflict between mind sets of Jesus and Judas

    1. Jesus mind set is clearly stated in his earlier declaration of his future to his disciples.

      1. They are on the road, going up to Jerusalem.

      2. Jesus takes the twelve aside and begins to tell them what is going to happen to him.

..."See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again," (Mark 10:32-34, NRSVA).

      1. Jesus knows his fate and accepts it.

    1. Judas does not accept it and his mind set leaves him with few, if any options.

Joseph Parmigian is a character in Ronald Ribman's play "Cold Storage." He is struggling with terminal illness, which elicits all sorts of frustrating feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. In one of many discussions with a Jewish art dealer named Landau, Parmigian is pushed to "Come to the point." This is his reply:

"The point is, there is no point! And that, my Jewish friend, is the secret of the universe. I, Joseph Parmigian, have solved the problem five thousand rabbis with five thousand bears working five thousand years couldn't solve - there is no point!"

      1. There is no point.

        1. If there is no point, there is little to live for.

        2. Judas had little to live for.

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  1. Judas still had the opportunity for repentance.

    1. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NRSVA)

"For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death."

      1. Judas did not have a godly grief.

        1. The passage states that he repented, but the word is different

        2. Instead of repentance he had regrets.

REGRETS: G3338: ìåôáìÝëëïìáé, metamellomai (met-am-el'-lom-ahee) From G3326 and the middle of G3199; to care afterwards, that is, regret:--repent (self).

      1. Repentance may be defined this way.

REPENT: G3340: ìåôáíïÝù, metanoeoô (met-an-o-eh'-o) From G3326 and G3539; to think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider (morally to feel compunction):--repent.

    1. What a difference a mind set makes.

      1. You can be a prisoner of your own mind.

On March 12 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) made his first of many informal "Fireside Chats" to the American people by radio at 10 p.m. from his study at the White House.

By speaking to his audience as "my friends," the President reached the average citizen with sincerity.

"Men are not prisoners of fate," he said, "but only prisoners of their own minds."

With the spirit of unity, FDR ended his first chat with the words, "It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail."

--"Franklin D. Roosevelt--Try Something--March 12," Daily Celebrations, dailycelebrations.com. Retrieved September 23, 2002.

      1. Judas is a prisoner of his own mind.

    1. You can be a prisoner of your own mind or you can find renewal of you mind in Jesus Christ.

The story is told of a dear old saint, incurably ill, who was visited by a younger friend. "You are suffering very much, I am afraid," said the younger woman, trying to be helpful.

"Yes," said the older woman, "but look." She held out her hands. "There are no nails there. He had the nails; I have the hope." She pointed to her head. "There are no thorns there. He had the thorns; I have the hope."

--Sam H. Moffett, "There Is No Cheap Hope," Reformed World, 36 (1980), 29.

  1. Judas provides us with a negative example when life seems hopeless.

    1. When all your hopes and dreams, and desires are thwarted or frustrated, how do you recapture the dream?

    2. Have we been given sufficient insight into how we can hold onto the dream or if it is a little faded, recapture it?

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CONCLUSION

  1. So what do we do?

  2. Let us be like the old man in this illustration.

An old man lived in the center of a desolate and hopeless city. The man walked outside of his house and onto the streets and yelled, "Love, peace, righteousness!" The next day he would do the same thing -- he would leave his house, walk onto the street and yell at the top of his lungs, "Love, peace, righteousness!" He would do this every day, rain or shine, like clockwork.

One day the man's next-door neighbor, who was tired of the daily yelling, went out on the street and confronted him. He said, "Hey man, are you crazy? What the heck do you think you are doing? Every day you come out of your house and yell 'love, peace, righteousness!' Fool, don't you know nobody is listening to you? This city is full of hate and crime and hopelessness, there is no love of neighbor and there is no peace and righteousness to be found, so give it a rest and save your breath! Don't you know that you can't change the world?"

The old man said, "You are right, my yelling and shouting about 'love, peace and righteousness' may not change the world, but one thing it will do is to stop the world from changing me."

    1. Mind set, where are you in the thinking of your own mind?

    2. Do you have a meeting of the minds with Jesus or are you in conflict?

Amen.

1. The Good, Clean Funnies List [gcfl-info@gcfl.net]

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