INTRO.- ILL.- A little boy came home from his first day at school. His Mother asked him, "Well, what did you learn today?" He said, "Not enough. They want me to come back tomorrow."
I always had to go back too. The truth is even once we get out of school we are still engaged in the learning process.
ILL.- Winston Churchill said, “Personally I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” I can’t say that I am always willing or ready to learn but I should be. I may not like my teacher, but I should be open to learning.
When you come to church and Sunday School you should come hoping, praying and expecting to learn something about the Lord that will bless your life and deepen your devotion to Him. YES, YOU SHOULD PRAY BEFORE YOU COME! At least, whisper a prayer. “Thank you, Lord, for the church and opportunity to learn and grow. Help me to learn and know you better.”
You should come to church like many little kids do! Haven’t you noticed? Some come into the building excited, jumping, yelling, etc. They are glad to be here! What about you?
Ps. 122:1 “I was GLAD when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.” Are you glad when someone says, “Let’s go to church?” Or do you say inwardly, “Ugh”? Or “Do I have to go?”
ILL.- Here was Henry Ford’s perspective on education even though I don’t think he was an extremely spiritual-minded man. He said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young but becomes constantly more valuable, regardless of physical capacity.”
I think there’s something to what Henry Ford said. If we stop learning, reading, looking, listening, dreaming, inventing, thinking, etc. we will dry up and die, so to speak. This is especially true when it comes to learning about God and His Word.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matt. 5:6)
Ps. 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
We are blessed and will be blessed if we ignore and shun the counsel of the world and instead seek the Lord’s face and His counsel. As we delight in God’s Word we will be blessed, but we have to be “into” God’s Word in order to learn how to delight in it. The more you study, the more you’ll want to study.
Ps. 42:1-2 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
ILL.- I often miss my children and my grandbabies. They are sweet and precious. They are a strong, deep throb in my heart. But God is my God. He is the giver of life. He is the giver of everything that is good in life. He is the very intense lover of my soul. He loves me even when others don’t, even when my own children may not love me or like me. He loves me with a pure love. He loves me with an undying love. And He longs for fellowship with me. HOW CAN I NOT THIRST FOR HIM?
When we get thirsty for God that’s when He will pour out His blessings on us as never before!
ILL.- Thomas A. Edison, the great inventor, was talking one day with the governor of North Carolina, and the governor complimented him on his inventive genius.
“I am not a great inventor,” said Edison. “But you have over a thousand patents to your credit, haven’t you?” asked the governor.
“Yes, but about the only invention I can really claim as absolutely original is the phonograph,” was the reply. “Why, I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean,” said the governor.
“Well,” explained Edison, “I guess I’m an awfully good sponge. I absorb ideas from every source I can, and put them to practical use. Then I improve them until they become of some value. The ideas which I use are mostly the ideas of other people who don’t develop them themselves.”
That sounds like me when it comes to sermonizing or preparing sermons. I don’t prepare the best sermons in the world but I get some good ideas from other preachers and put them together and come up with something that hopefully will bless people!
And we all need to be good sponges when it comes to the Word of God and the truths that His people are preaching or presenting! We are never, never too old to learn!
PROP.- In this short text, I see a couple of lessons. Simple lessons but lessons we need to learn.
1- Some things are obvious – proceed with speed
2- Some things are not so obvious – proceed with caution
I. SOME THINGS ARE OBVIOUS – PROCEED WITH SPEED
Matt. 24:32-33 "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.”
Jesus said, “When the leaves are out, you know that summer is near.” I think Jesus was saying that some things are pretty obvious in life. And when we see the obvious, we should know how to act and how to respond.
ILL.- Feb. 23, 2007, NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A rare, 184-year-old copy of the Declaration of Independence was found by a bargain hunter at a Nashville thrift shop. Michael Sparks, a music equipment technician, is selling the document in an auction March 22nd at Raynors’ Historical Collectible Auctions in Burlington, North Carolina. The opening bid is $125,000 and appraisers have estimated it could sell for nearly twice that.
Sparks found his bargain last March while browsing at Music City Thrift Shop in Nashville. When he asked the price on a yellowed, shellacked, rolled-up document, the clerk marked it at $2.48.
It turned out to be an "official copy" of the Declaration of Independence — one of 200 commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820. He didn’t know he had such a valuable piece until doing some online research and then having appraisers at Raynors’ offer an opinion.
Now what is obvious to me is that once Michael Sparks discovered he had a treasure he was going to sell it. Unless someone is already wealthy or is a collector it seems obvious to me that the money would be more valuable to most people.
Some things are pretty obvious in life and the choice is obvious.
ILL.- The 25-year-old pop singer, Britney Spears, has been in the news almost daily. She’s been running night and day, going to nightclubs, drinking, partying, smoking, getting tattoos, shaving her head, in rehab one day and out the next. Apparently, the message finally got to her parents, even though they may not be able to do much since she’s supposedly an adult and responsible for her own life, but her daddy is quoted as saying, “We have a sick little girl.” DUH!
When someone goes as berserk as Britney Spears has, it’s obvious that she needs help. And when something has obviously gone bad you take action and do something about it.
ILL.- The stoplight is red. We all know what that means. And it’s like some people have said, “What part of the word ‘no’ don’t you understand?” Some things are quite obvious.
What about spiritually speaking? When the door is open, walk through it! When the light is green then you should go!
ILL.- For example, some time ago Josie Vaughn called me and said that Bill wanted to be baptized. Would you come and visit with him? What do you think I did?
ILL.- Norman Cates tells the story of a Christian who prayed this prayer every morning: "Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is." One day he found himself on a nearly empty bus when a big, burly man sat next to him.
The timid believer anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get off, the big burly guy next to him burst into tears and began to weep. This big but contrite man then cried out with a loud voice, "I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?" He turned to this Christian gentleman and pleaded, "Can you show me how to find the Lord?"
The believer immediately bowed his head and prayed, "Lord, is this a sign?" DUH. The light had turned “green” and yet he couldn’t see it!
ILL.- Howard Hendricks said, “In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering.”
The light is green for reaching people for Christ. SOME THINGS ARE OBVIOUS – PROCEED WITH SPEED.
II. SOME THINGS ARE NOT SO OBVIOUS – PROCEED WITH CAUTION
ILL.- A lady named Kristin said: “MY HUSBAND and I took our two-year-old daughter to the home-improvement store. Madison got tired of walking, so my husband let her ride on his shoulders. As he walked, Madison began pulling his hair. Although he asked her calmly to stop several times, she kept on. Getting annoyed, he scolded, "Madison! Stop that!"
"But Daddy," she replied. "I’m just trying to get my gum back."
It was not obvious to that daddy that little Madison was simply trying to get her gum back. He thought that all she wanted to do was mess up his hair.
ILL.- Some people like to take the simple and make it complex. Someone said, “My neighbor’s car has on it a bumper sticker that says, ‘Eschew obfuscation.’ After about a half-hour with the dictionary, I found out that means, ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’”
That is far from obvious. And that sounds like some sermons I’ve heard. They were trying to hide the obvious truth of God with big words.
Matt. 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
It is not obvious that the words of Jesus will never pass away. How do we know for sure? We don’t, other than the fact that Jesus told us so. This is not an obvious truth to most people. It is to us who believe Jesus!
Nothing appears to be eternal to most people because we don’t live in the eternal world.
ILL.- Last week while I was in Joplin, MO, I went to visit my mom and dad’s grave and replace the flowers at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Webb City, MO. That cemetery is right alongside the main road that leads to Joplin. But do you know that when I went to visit mom and dad’s grave I never saw anybody else in that cemetery.
Did you ever wonder why many people don’t go to cemeteries? One reason is because people don’t like death and they don’t like to be reminded of death. And most people think that the grave is the end! That’s why they are not quick to go there. It is not obvious to most people that there is an eternity and that the dead are not dead at all!
But to us who are in Christ there is hope! We believe! We trust! We believe that Jesus will keep good on His promise of eternal life! The obvious to us is not obvious to many others.
Gen. 3:1-7 “1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ " 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”
Was there anything in this scene that was not obvious, which should have brought about some caution? Yes, the serpent! It was not obvious to Eve that the serpent was a deceiver. He was crafty but was perhaps even more than crafty.
Some commentators believe that before the fall the serpent stood erect or moved along in an erect mode, which may mean he was somewhat different than we view the serpent today.
In fact, it seems to me that some say that before the fall the serpent may have been quite beautiful and seductive to Eve. One writer said “But these reptiles were at first, probably, far superior in beauty.”
The seduction to sin was NOT OBVIOUS to Eve. Instead of proceeding with caution, Eve got sucked in by the beautiful and the smooth talking serpent.
ILL.- Have you seen those new GPS guidance systems that you can get for your car? Some are built in (for several thousand dollars) and some are portable. You can plug them into your lighter or cell phone connection in your car. Then you can touch the screen and tell it where you would like to go and it will give you the directions. Jim Reed has one that his son gave to him. Jim took me for a short drive one day to show me how it worked. It even talks to you! And of course, Jim’s has a pleasant ladies voice that speaks to him.
And if you miss turning at the street or intersection where you are supposed to go, she will talk to Jim and tell him where to go or what to do next.
Many times in life we don’t know which direction to turn or what to do. We all need some kind of spiritual GPS guidance system.
Psalm 119:9-11 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands (or direction). I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
There is our spiritual GPS system!
ILL.- Last Tuesday night on Prime Time they showed the new Christ, De Jesus from Puerto Rico. He claims to be the better Christ and declares there is no sin, no Satan, and no one will go to hell. They interviewed several church members as to what they thought about their Christ. And they believe in him fully. One Hispanic man and his wife were worth $6 million but had already given De Jesus $2 million and would probably give him more.
Why do people follow a man like that? Because their spiritual GPS system is not working. Of course, it may have never worked! They don’t know the Word of God and probably don’t even care what the Bible says.
Brothers and sisters, some things in life are not so obvious – proceed with caution. But if the Word of God spells it out clearly, avoid it. Don’t go that way! But when it’s good and it’s clear and the light is green, then go for it!
