October 4, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 3:7-12, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: Accessibility

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INTRODUCTION:

1. George Jovonovich and Michelle Babcock were married yesterday
1. What if when we came to the sharing of vows, it went something like this.
1. Michelle Ann Babcock, I take you from this time onward to be my wedded wife, to join with you and to share all that is to come, yada, yada, yada.
2. Michelle answers, "Whatever."
2. "Yada, Yada, Yada,"
1. What does it mean?
2. What does it communicate?
3. Leonard I. Sweet, in HOMILETICS, November 1998, page 23, writes:
1. "One of the more recent TV-based trends has been the rise in everyday conversation of what we might call 'sitcom-shorthand.'
2. There is hardly a sitcom on the air that hasn't employed this language during the course of a conversation.
1. You've heard it. (Have you?)
2. Chances are you've used it. (I don't know.)
3. It is used without considering the 'it's of no importance to me' attitude and impact on others that it reflects.
3. This sitcom shorthand is the familiar 'yada, yada, yada' brought to the national consciousness courtesy of Seinfeld.
1. Unwilling to go into the details of another's conversation, determinedly uninterested in the particulars of another's viewpoint or input, we both summarize and summarily dismiss an entire discussion with this short-shrift, shorthand 'yada, yada, yada.'

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4. "By pushing the delete button to conversations, dialogues, debates or arguments, 'yada, yada, yada' admits that we don't really care what others may go through or what may be involved in producing the end results.
1. "How would you feel if:
1. "Your boss calls you in to her office, shuffles papers on her desk, looks up and declares, 'You know how it is, profits are down, costs are up, business is slow yada, yada, yada...you're fired.'
2. "Your spouse confronts you over the breakfast cereal with an ultimatum: 'Guess what, we've had a few good years, but now the bloom is off the rose, the grass is looking greener elsewhere...yada, yada, yada.'
2. I have not heard "Yada, yada, yada," but I have heard "Blah, blah, blah" with the same results.
5. The linguistic shorthand may leave us confused, angry, mystified, hurt and hanging.
6. "Not to worry. There are individuals, who on the receiving end of 'yada, yada, yada,' have resorted to another shorthand, conversational device:
1. The, 'whatever.' Like, why not tell this to someone who really cares?!
1. "Do you want coffee or juice to drink with your breakfast? Whatever!
2. "Do you want to go to the 10 o'clock or the 4 o'clock matinee? Whatever!
2. I have not heard "whatever," but I have heard, "If you say so," which is essentially the same thing.
3. "'Whatever!' is a response not just for trivial or inconsequential choices in our fives.
4. Increasingly, a 'whatever' attitude is souring the taste of our entire life experience."

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7. It can also have a severe impact on the way we relate to and communicate with God.
1. You are praying: "God I am having a difficult time and need some help.
1. God responds: "I have just the thing for you, yada, yada, yada."
2. You respond with, "Whatever."
2. God has a task for you and you respond, "God I am too busy right now but..."Yada, yada, yada."
1. God answers, "Whatever."
2. Don't you believe it.
3. This is not how it is done or ought to be done.
4. It is much more serious than the often casual way we approach God.

MAIN BODY:

1. The apostle Paul was about as far away from a "whatever" attitude as one can.
1. He calls Christians to get about, as far away from the "whatever" attitude as we can get and to embrace another "whatever" attitude: "Whatever it takes."
2. He provides us with the means to do whatever it takes.
3. (Ephesians 3:11-12 NRSV) This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, [12] in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
1. 3954. parrhesia, par-rhay-see'-ah; from G3956 and a der. of G4483; all out-spokenness, i.e. frankness, bluntness, publicity; by impl. assurance:--bold (X -ly, -ness, -ness of speech), confidence, X freely, X openly, X plainly (-ness).
2. Boldness and confidence through faith in him.
1. Boldness is not brashness.
2. Boldness is not demanding

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4. Bold is an intelligent request based on God's desire and ability to help.
1. (Mark 10:46-52 NRSV) They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. [47] When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" [48] Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" [49] Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." [50] So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. [51] Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again." [52] Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
2. (Luke 18:1-8 NRSV) Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. [2] He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. [3] In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' [4] For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, [5] yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" [6] And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. [7] And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? [8] I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

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2. Boldness and faith are partner's in a person desire for divine assistance.
1. Bold faith
1. (Mark 5:25-29 NRSV) Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. [26] She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. [27] She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, [28] for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." [29] Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
2. Confident faith
1. (1 John 5:13-15 NRSV) I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. [14] And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. [15] And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.
2. (1 John 4:16-18 NRSV) So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. [17] Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
3. (Hebrews 4:15-16 NRSV) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
1. Receive mercy.
2. Find grace to help in time of need.

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3. What need?
1. We all have needs.
1. Need for salvation
1. We need to be saved from the nature and consequences of sin.
2. We need to be saved from ourselves.
1. We are our worst enemy.
2. Need for repentance
1. This is not only an intellectual recognition of the harm we have done.
2. It is also an emotional sensitivity that leads us to turn around and do life differently.
3. Need for changes in attitude
1. Attitude towards people.
2. Attitude towards the church
3. Attitude towards our own personal needs.
4. Need for changes in personality.
1. To become be less abrasive and
2. To be winsome and loving.
2. Some needs we clearly recognize, others may be obscure, but are serious needs, non-the-less.

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