Don’t Assume To Assume

I must confess as I preach this sermon to you that I am guilty of doing just that often.

Illus: I am like the man who says:

• People say I make too many assumptions.

• I mean, they don't say it, but I know they're thinking it...

But this is not something I am guilty alone, I think we are all guilty of doing it.

Define Assumption: A thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.

Assuming things make me think of the…

Illus: On the first day of school, the children brought gifts for their teacher.

• The supermarket manager's daughter brought the teacher a basket of assorted fruit.

•

The florist's son brought the teacher a bouquet of flowers.

•

The candy-store owner's daughter gave the teacher a pretty box of candy.

• Then the liquor-store owner's son brought up a big, heavy box.

• The teacher lifted it up and noticed that it was leaking a little bit... She touched a drop of the liquid with her finger and tasted it.

• "Is it wine?" she guessed.

• "No," the boy replied.

• She tasted another drop and asked, "Champagne ?"

• "No," said the little boy........... "It's a puppy!"....

I am here to tell you that ASSUMING THNGS CAN GET YOU INTO TROUBLE.

The danger of assumptions is that we live our life thinking we know everything because we have based our life on assumptions.

That is we live our life by accepting that our narrow view of information is accurate, we close ourselves off to other possibilities.

HOW DOES ASSUMPTION GET STARTED!!!

It’s easy to make assumptions. Do three things:

1. All you need is incomplete information about a situation.

2. You fill in the blanks with YOUR interpretation of what you SEE OR HEAR.

3. Armed with your information, you connect dots that aren’t there.

That is something we do in this life, we assume something is true to only find out later it there is not one shred of truth in it. NOT A SHRED!!!

Illus: Let me illustrate: A professional carpet-layer stepped back to survey a newly installed carpet he had just installed.

Reaching into his shirt pocket for a cigarette, he realized the pack was missing. At the same time he noticed a lump under the carpet in the middle of the room, about the size of the missing cigarette pack.

There was no way to retrieve his cigarette pack from under the attached carpet without ripping everything up and starting over. Finally, he decided to beat the object flat, thereby destroying any evidence of his mistake.

Gathering his tools, the carpet layer walked out to his truck. There on the seat of his truck was the mislaid pack of cigarette.

As he lit one up, the homeowner hurried out of the house and asked, “Hey, have you seen my son’s parkeet?”

Again, if you want to live a life of regret go through life assuming things without the facts.

We do this all the time by:

I. THINGS WE HEAR

Listen, you can not believe in everything you hear.

For example, if we were living in the days on earth when Christ was on earth, and believe all the things that his enemies said about Him we would not believe that He was who He said HE WAS!!!

For example, look at Mark 3:20-22 And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself. And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.

Notice, they said,

• HE IS BESIDE HIMSELF!!!

• HE HATH Beelzebub

In Luke 7:34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

• He is a glutton

• He is a winebibber

Many people were saying bad things about Jesus. Even Jesus’ family were saying bad things about him.

John 7:5 For neither did his brethren believe in him.

There was some very bad things being said about the Lord Jesus.

Now those who heard such things ASSUME it was the truth and they became part of that crowd that hollered, CRUCIFY HIM!

The things they said of Him is the biggest FALSE ASSUMPTION that has ever been assumed.

Illus: Someone said, “You can not believe half of what you hear”.

I would not say that is true, but if we are wise when we hear something we should NOT ASSUME everything we are hearing is the truth.

Illus: The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene hampered him and he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway.