May 7, Lesson: Matthew 26.1-5

Sermon Title: The Fix Is In!

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INTRODUCTION:

Keith Wagner, "Navigating the wilderness," (1) tells a story about a man and his family who went sailing on Chesapeake Bay, Maryland

He had little experience and he had never been in waters where you had to navigate.

Unfortunately he ran aground. The Coast Guard came to his aid and towed him back into safe waters.

When they asked to see his chart he handed them a Rand McNally road map.

He had been navigating with a road map and not a nautical chart.

A nautical chart shows the depth of the water, shoals, obstacles and channels.

  1. Too many people are navigating through life with the wrong map.

    1. Instead of looking outward seeking help, they look inward, relying on their own resources.

    2. Instead of plotting a course they just wander from here to there with very little planning and a lack of goals.

    3. People also live in the past, doing things the same way they have always done them before, taking no risks and having no adventure.

    4. When the journey gets difficult people get stuck, like the fellow who went aground.

      1. All seems hopeless.

      2. They are not prepared to face rough waters or weather the storms that arise.

      3. They can't cope with a crisis and they are unable to adapt to changing conditions.

  2. As an old song says:

"Take up the broken threads of life,
Thy God can weave the strands again;
He will not cast His work aside,
Nor suffer thee to live in vain.

Take up the broken threads of life,
Let God restore the wasted years;
Begin this day to live anew,
And bid farewell to all thy fears!"

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MAIN BODY:

  1. We are all broken.

    1. This is the message of Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend, in Twelve Christian Beliefs that Can Drive You Crazy (2)

      1. We are all broken in some way, both sinful and sinned against.

        1. Because none of us has escaped the results of sin, we suffer spiritual and emotional damage.

          1. We won't let others love us.

          2. We can't say no.

          3. We don't know how to connect with people.

          4. We're unable to be firm in our convictions.

          5. We need help to be disciplined, to accept our weaknesses, to stand against those who would abuse us.

          6. The broken, damaged, immature parts of our character need to be fixed.

    2. What we need is a fix.

      1. There is not a quick fix.

      2. There is a slow and gradual fix.

        1. FIX, TRANSITIVE VERB with a great many applications.

          1. 1a. To place securely; make stable or firm: fixed the tent poles in the ground. See synonyms at fasten.

          2. b. To secure to another; attach: fixing the notice to the board with tacks.

          3. 2a. To put into a stable or unalterable form: tried to fix the conversation in her memory.

          4. 7a. To correct or set right; adjust: fix a misspelling; fix the out-of-date accounts.

          5. b. To restore to proper condition or working order; repair: fix a broken machine. c. Computer Science To convert (data) from floating-point notation to fixed-point notation.

          6. 8. To make ready; prepare: fixed the room for the guests; fix lunch for the kids; fixed himself a milkshake.

          7. 9. To spay or castrate (an animal).

            1. God is not in the business of neutering a dog or spaying a cat.

            2. He dies not treat us the way in which we treat animals.

          8. 10. Informal To take revenge upon; get even with.

            1. God does not seek to get even.

            2. God has nothing to get even for,

          9. 11. To influence the outcome or actions of by improper or unlawful means: fix a prizefight; fix a jury.

            1. God does not use improper or unlawful means.

            2. God does not compromise a conscience or control a life.

            3. there are those who are manipulative and use improper and unlawful means.

    3Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5But they said, "Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people."

              1. They are attempting a fix but it will not work.

              2. It will backfire on them and leave them in a weaker and more vulnerable place.

    1. Jesus is the true fixer of life.

      1. He has completed his public ministry.

        1. He has told his parables.

        2. He has healed all who would receive the power of healing.

      2. Now, it is two days until Passover.

      3. He knows that he will be handed over to be crucified.

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    1. Jesus will provide us with a new and different Passover.

      1. Passover is a great Jewish festival.

      2. It celebrates the exodus from Egypt.

      3. It was the night when the people were to sprinkle the blood of a lamb on the top and sides of the door frame.

      4. The blood would act as a deterrent for the coming of the destroying angel.

      5. The angel would not be allowed to enter that home and the young would be secure.

    2. Jesus is the Paschal Lamb.

      1. His blood will be offered.

      2. We do not need to sprinkle it on our door frames.

      3. We accept his sacrifice on our behalf

    3. What is Jesus fixing?

      1. He is fixing the dominance of sin.

        1. Sin shall not have dominion over you.

        2. You are not under the law, but under grace.

      2. He is fixing the definition and purpose of righteousness.

        1. Righteousness is a word that we do not fully appreciate.

        2. I looked it up in the Holman Bible Dictionary and this is what I found.

          1. "Righteousness" in the original languages denotes far more than in English usage; indeed, biblical righteousness is generally at odds with current English usage.

          2. We understand righteousness to mean "uprightness" in the sense of "adherence or conformity to an established norm."

          3. In biblical usage righteousness is rooted in covenants and relationships.

          4. For biblical authors, righteousness is the fulfillment of the terms of a covenant between God and humanity or between humans in the full range of human relationships.

        3. Fulfillment means doing what is right according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

      3. He is breaking the chains of domination by Satan.

        1. Satan is totally defeated.

        2. We do not have to fear the enemy.

        3. What we need to fear is the lack of trust in Jesus in ourselves.

      4. He will do this by means of the cross.

    4. He will help to put the broken threads of life together.

    Rita Bass Coors paid $7,000 for a porcelain mask hand-painted by John Denver. (3)

      1. It had been purchased at the 1997 Charity Celebrity Ball for Hospice of Metropolitan Denver.

      2. As the auctioneer handed it to her, it slipped through her fingers and shattered on the floor.

      3. The new owner of an expensive pile of broken pieces decided to keep them anyway.

      4. Rather than attempting to fix the mask, she placed the pieces in a montage of John Denver photographs.

      5. God is on a mission to find and pick up the shattered, jagged lives of broken people and transform them into something beautiful.

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    CONCLUSION

    1. It takes time and patience.

      1. But it is a work that can begin immediately.

    In the closing chapter of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Huck and his friend Tom Sawyer are hatching a plot to liberate old Jim, a runaway slave whom Tom's uncle has imprisoned in a cabin. Tom's imagination runs riot as he makes a long list of all the equipment that they will need for the elaborate rescue operation. It will be comparable to some of the great escapes in history, he speculates. It could take years and years, perhaps even a lifetime to carry through.

    Meanwhile, what about poor old Jim, chained to his bed in the dark lonely cabin, without food and drink? He seems to be forgotten. He is only a prop in the drama. The rescue operation itself has become more important than the person to be rescued.

    1. The work of recovery is the work of sanctification.

      1. God is redeeming those lost parts of our souls that are injured.

      2. He is bringing those parts into the light of his grace and truth.

        1. And doing this repair, many wrongly believe, is God himself, by himself, unaided by anyone or anything.

        2. All we really need, they insist, is to do what the Bible says.

      3. Yet the Bible says over and over again that we should find people to help us return to spiritual and emotional health.

        1. Where are we going to find the people who know and understand, but right here.

        2. Where are we going to find the people with the compassionate skill that we need, but right here.

      4. The root meaning of the Hebrew word hazaq, repair, is to squeeze or bind.

        1. Among other things, it means to help strengthen the hands and arms.

        2. The picture is of strong hands supporting weight.

    In her old age a woman was weak and frail, unable even to hold her fork to eat. At mealtimes, Dr. Henry Cloud, relates he would sometimes place his hand around hers, guiding the fork to her mouth. This hazaq brought us closer together. (4)

      1. God, you and I working together bring it all together.

    "Take up the broken threads of life,
    Thy God can weave the strands again;
    He will not cast His work aside,
    Nor suffer thee to live in vain.

    Take up the broken threads of life,
    Let God restore the wasted years;
    Begin this day to live anew,
    And bid farewell to all thy fears!"

    Amen.

1. Keith Wagner, "Navigating the wilderness," April 1, 2001. bright.net/~coth/navigate.htm. Retrieved August 11, 2005.

2. Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend, in Twelve Christian Beliefs that Can Drive You Crazy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 123.

3. Frank Lewis, Preaching that restores, Leadership, Winter 2001, 40.

4. Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend, Twelve Christian Beliefs that Can Drive You Crazy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 123.

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