SPECIAL DAYS: Parents Day

July 25, 2004: Lesson: Matthew 15.32-39

Sermon Title: Not Again!

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. Its All A Racket (1)

The youth director had been trying for months to get the little boy down the street to come to church to be with his third grade Sunday school class.

Finally after talking to the boy and his mother for what seemed to be the hundredth time the boy finally agreed to go this next Sunday, which he did and seemed to enjoy all of the proceedings except as the baptismal service began he ran out the back door and ran all the way home. His mother asked him why did he run home instead of riding with the youth minister.

The little boy answered, "Its all a racket, They get you there and let you make all those nice things and tell you great stories just to get you relaxed so they can drown you at the end of one of the services."

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MAIN BODY:

  1. In one way or another there are times when all people are like the boy in the story.

    1. This may appear to be an exaggeration.

    2. It might be.

    3. I don't believe so.

  2. In one way or another there are times when all people are like the boy in the story.

    1. He has a need for information

      1. The youth director can be faulted for taking the boy's understanding for granted.

      2. Taking things for granted can be embarrassing.

The scene is a Denny's restaurant in Spokane, Washington, before daybreak in January 2004. The weather is freezing, and the restaurant patrons are warming themselves with cups of coffee.

Suddenly, a car pulls up and three men jump out, naked. They rush into the Denny's and start to streak through the dining room, planning to make a quick exit and jump into their car, idling in the parking lot.

But their visit goes downhill when they discover that their car has been stolen.

Police believe that the thief was a patron in the restaurant who walked out and took the getaway car just moments after the streakers arrived. Not only did the thief take their car, but he also took their clothing.

The three men fled the diner wearing only ski hats and shoes. Police found them crouching behind another car in the parking lot, trying to stay hidden and warm.

"They failed at both," the police report said.

        1. They took much for granted.

        2. They took for granted that their running, warm car would be waiting for them when they finished with their silly prank.

    1. The boy has a need of experience.

Confederate Army General Simon Bolivar Buckner, whose West Point friendship with Ulysses S. Grant survived the Civil War, liked to tell the story of an old resident in his Kentucky home who was celebrated for his down-home wisdom.

Uncle Zeke, a young man once asked, "How does it come you're so wise?"

Because, said the old man, "I've got good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience well, that comes from poor judgment."

      1. A wise person once wrote: (2)

"Experience is said to be the best teacher. Genuine experience is indeed superior to theoretical knowledge, but many have a false idea as to what constitutes experience. "Real experience is gained be a variety of careful experiments, made with the mind free from prejudice, uncontrolled by previously established opinions and habits. The results are marked with careful deliberation...

"That which many term experience is not experience at all...There has not been a fair trial by actual experiment and thorough investigation, with a knowledge of the principles involved in the action...

"Many examples might be given to show how people have been deceived by relying upon what they supposed to be their experience."

      1. The qualifiers of experience are very important.

        1. Real experience is gained by a variety of careful experiments.

        2. Made with the mind free from prejudice.

        3. Uncontrolled by previously established opinions and habits.

        4. The results are marked with careful deliberation.

Carol Hyatt and Linda Gottlieb, When Smart People Fail, writes about an incident in the life of former tennis star Billy Jean King. (3)

"I was with Billie Jean once when she got to the finals at Wimbledon. Now Wimbledon is to Billie Jean like no other tournament to no other person. She had been mentally preparing for it for literally twelve months. She went out and played the finals and lost miserably.

"I was sitting in the locker room, and I thought she would probably come back and announce she was going into retirement again or planning to commit suicide. Instead she came in and totally surprised me with her attitude.

"She was hitting the walls and the lockers and slapping her hands and saying, "God, I can't wait till next year. I'm going to do it next year. I know what I did wrong." She was already correcting her mistakes, psyching herself up to keep playing.

        1. Does this illustrate the point?

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    1. The boy has a need of information and experience so that he can make better choices.

      1. Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Business Stupidity in the 21st Century writes about Your Busy Life (4)

"What's the future look like? I'll tell you: It's about tough choices. For example, this morning I noticed that my electric razor had spilled its entire collection of whiskers all over the inside of my fashionable leather toiletry bag. I had two choices. I could laboriously remove those whiskers, individually cleaning each of the other contents of the bag, thus missing at least an hour of useful work, or I could say to myself, "If I didn't mind having those whiskers on my face, why should I mind them on my little traveling aspirin bottle?"

"I chose the latter. After all, I already got used to the toothpaste all over everything in that bag. How bad could a few hairs be?

"That's what the future looks like -- a bag filled with toothpaste, whiskers and unidentified containers. We're entering an age when the things we need to do and want to do are absorbed and overwhelmed by other things we need to do and want to do. We'll make random, often stupid choices because we don't have the brains or the time to do better.

      1. William Ward put it a bit more clearly:

"We can choose to throw stones, to stumble on them, to climb over them, or to build with them. --William Andrew Ward

      1. We cannot choose as wisely without the information and the experience.

  1. Jesus recognizes the same needs in his disciples.

    1. Jesus has already fed five thousand men, plus women and children.

      1. Here he is feeding four thousand men, plus women and children.

      2. Is it a conflation of one story repeated twice for emphasis and effect?

      3. Many authorities believe that it is.

      4. I do not believe that this is so.

      5. It would be an embarrassment to Matthew, the writer of this Gospel.

      6. Even putting in the story at this point would be an embarrassment as well to any of the 11 original disciples who might be still living.

    2. This is placed here for a purpose.

    3. If we can understand the purpose, then we can understand the meaning and the importance of the story.

      1. The purpose is to enforce the need for information.

      2. The need is to generate positive experience.

      3. The need is for good and productive choices.

    4. Jesus invites the disciples to participate in a wonderful event by telling them that the people need not go away. You give them something to eat.

      1. They have nothing but seven loaves and a few small fish.

      2. Now here they are again.

    5. The purpose of the story is not about feeding hungry people, although that is an important function of the church.

    6. It is not about how much food you have, although that is an important necessity for the sustaining of life.

    7. What have the disciples done or not done?

      1. Jesus wants to feed the hungry.

      2. The disciples response is wrongheaded and totally inappropriate.

      3. They respond by saying, "Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?"

        1. That is not the right response.

        2. The right response is "Here's what we have, will it be enough."

      4. They have to learn to share.

        1. They have to learn what it means to share with the blessing of God.

        2. Sometimes it takes more than one experience to teach the lessons that need to be learned.

        3. Sometimes you have to do it wrong, before you can get it right.

        4. It is not what we have that is important, it is how we use it.

  2. Jesus recognizes the same needs in you and me.

    1. Do we have a need for information?

    2. Do we have a need for genuine experiences?

    3. Do we have a need for the proper foundation to make better, even the best decisions?

    4. Of course we do!

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CONCLUSION

  1. So do not be concerned with that you presently may have.

  2. Use the process to take what you have and allow Jesus to help it to grow until it can figuratively feed the four thousand.

  3. There is a song in our hymnal that provides information and inspiration.

Little Is Much When God Is in it (5)

In the harvest field now ripened
There's a work for all to do;
Hark! the voice of God is calling
To the harvest calling you.

Refrain
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown--and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus' Name.

Does the place you're called to labor
Seem too small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He'll not forget His own.

Refrain
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown--and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus' Name.

Are you laid aside from service,
Body worn from toil and care?
You can still be in the battle,
In the sacred place of prayer.

Refrain
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown--and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus' Name.

When the conflict here is ended
And our race on earth is run,
He will say, if we are faithful,
"Welcome home, My child--well done!"

Refrain
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown--and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus' Name.

AMEN!

1. Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]

2. Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene. pp. 109, 110.

3. Carol Hyatt and Linda Gottlieb, WHEN SMART PEOPLE FAIL, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987).

4. Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Business Stupidity in the 21st Century (New York: HarperBusiness, 1998), 89.

5. Words & Music: Kittie L. Suffield, 1924

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