OPEN: A man named Gregory P. Elder told of growing up on the Atlantic Coast. And what he loved to do as a child was to spend his time down at the beach. For hours each day, he’d sit on the sand and build castles and intricate cities. But one year his joy in these creations was threatened by bullies who decided it would be fun to smash everything he made.
What was he to do? They were bigger than he was. And there were too many of them for him to fight. What was he to do?
Well, he decided to change his approach to how he built things.
He built the same kinds of castles and cities…but now he placed a new foundation underneath them: cinder blocks, rocks and chunks of concrete.
When his tormentors appeared - he disappeared. And eventually, they found their entertainment… elsewhere.
APPLY: It matters how you build things.
It matters what kind of foundation we lay for our buildings, our homes and our works of art
ILLUS: They say that the Tower of Pisa in Italy is one of the most famous buildings in the world
But it has a “little problem”.
It’s foundation was too shallow to hold the building up on the soft soil it was built on. The tower has stood for over 800 years, but it leans 18 feet off center. One day - experts say - it will fall.
All because it wasn’t built on the right foundation
Hebrews 11:6 says that “WITHOUT FAITH it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
The foundation of our relationship with Jesus is faith.
Unless we exercise faith in that relationship with Christ there is a shallowness to our foundation. We can tend to lean off center… and even fall over as Christians.
Now, that brings us to our text for this morning.
Up until the incident we’re reading about here in Matthew 13 Jesus has been fairly busy.
Matthew chapter 8 we’re told that He:
• healed a Leper – Mat 8:1
• healed the servant of a Roman centurion– Mat 8:5
• healed Peter’s mother in law – Mat 8:14
• and at Capernaum, He healed numerous people with evil spirits and various diseases – Mat 8:16
And Matthew chapter 9 tells us that Jesus
• raised a girl from the dead – Mat 9:25
• and He made the blind to see – Mat 9:29
• and He made the mute to speak – Mat 9:32
All of that took place before He got to Nazareth. But something at Nazareth makes it so that He can’t do miracles there like He had elsewhere.
Does anybody know what it was that stopped Jesus from doing miracles? (lack of faith)
Without faith it’s impossible to please God.
Without faith it’s impossible to receive the power and the blessings of Jesus.
Without faith, your Christianity (and mine) lacks a sturdy foundation.
And when that happens, our Christianity has little to build on except lifeless doctrine and empty ritual.
Now a couple of questions:
1. Why didn’t the people in Nazareth believe… what led to their lack of faith?
2. How can I make sure that my faith doesn’t suffer the same fate?
Let’s start with the 1st question:
Why didn’t the people of Nazareth believe in Jesus?
Why didn’t they have the faith necessary for Him to work in their midst?
Well, let’s read their words. Look with me at Matthew 13:54:
“Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked.”
Intellectually, they KNEW that He could do mighty works.
Intellectually they REALIZED that His preaching held wisdom and power.
Now… look at the next few verses BUT…then they said
“’Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us?
Where then did this man get all these things?’
And they took offense at him.” (Matthew 13:55-57a)
Now what a bizarre statement.
They start by acknowledging Jesus’ power and wisdom
Then they backtrack to tracing his parentage…
And then they get offended with the whole idea that He could do and say what He did.
Are they daft?
No… they’re just upset with the idea of moving out of their “comfort zone”
They’ve got Jesus pigeon-holed
They knew all they wanted to know about Him
And this idea that He might be more than they expected… it made them uncomfortable
Many times we Christians fall into the same trap.
Jesus can become a theological thing for us
We read our Bible, go to church, pray a few basic prayers… and then we go on with our lives. Jesus is over there - and we’re over here - and that’s just the way some Christians like it. It’s a very comfortable arrangement. (Jesus runs His things/ we run ours)
But every once in while… Jesus gets out of the box.
Every once in while… Jesus (pause) moves.
He moves in a little closer than we’re used to.
He begins to challenge us in ways we’re not accustomed to being challenged
There comes a time when Jesus goes from – just letting us SAY we believe something - and puts us into situations where we have to PROVE that we believe it.
And when that time comes…we have to ask ourselves: Do we really believe what we say we do?
ILLUS: One of my favorite stories is about the last church I served. For the most part, there were a lot of good Godly people in that congregation. but there was a sizable portion who weren’t.
Before I had arrived, their previous preacher had convinced them to step out on faith and build a new foyer (which they needed) and a sanctuary (which would have been nice… but not essential at the time).
They had already raised $100,000, but there was a problem. Some of the people were uncomfortable with borrowing any large amount of money to build what they said they wanted. And those who were not so Godly in the church were the most vocal about their opposition.
It had really become a deep problem in that congregation that I feared might actually split them wide open… so I suggested they just start with the foyer, which they had enough money to build without borrowing.
To appease the people worried with borrowing money the Board promised we’d only spend what we had and would not borrow any money to complete the project (we had a member of the congregation as our contractor and he assured us we were well within the price range we had in mind).
We broke ground during the spring of “Desert Storm” – the 1st Iraqi War - and all was going well until the early summer when the government stepped in. They tested the ground and told us our ground didn’t “perk” (absorb water). So, instead of the $5000 septic system we’d planned on, now we had to spend $20,000 on a much more elaborate system.
That put us $10,000 behind the 8 ball.
And that made the Board very unhappy. They had promised they wouldn’t spend anymore than they had on hand… and now they were trapped. At the Board Meeting I told them that I had recently read about another church which had had a “Miracle Sunday”. They had a financial need, so they set a date a couple of weeks in the future and they challenged the people to decide on a special financial gift to bring that day and they had met their need.
When the board heard that story they became intrigued. Would I set up something like that for them? Of course I agreed. I set about promoting and advertising a “Miracle Sunday” for the first week of November and the financial goal was the $10,000 that we had fallen short on the building of the foyer.
But I suffer from a spiritual malady. I’m easily distracted. I’ll sometimes get started on one project and then another bright bobble catches my attention and I head off in another direction. And that’s what happened this time. In the midst of the promotion of Miracle Sunday I went to a Prayer conference down on the south side of Indianapolis. I became so impressed with what they taught about prayer that my own prayer life dramatically changed… and I took the sermons they preached there and began to preach at our congregation. But of course, in the process, I forgot all about Miracle Sunday.
The night before Miracle Sunday, I was working on the text from Daniel 10 where Daniel had prayed for 21 days asking God to help him understand a complicated vision he had received. The text said that an angel appeared to Daniel on the 21st day of his prayer and told him “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Daniel 10:12-13
The essence of the sermon was that the angel was sent immediately when Daniel prayed… but there were spiritual issues that can sometimes delay the answer we want. Thus, it’s critical that we not give up in our prayers or become discouraged when we don’t receive immediate fulfillment of what we see as our needs.
I had borrowed most of the sermon from the prayer conference… but their closing illustration wouldn’t work for me. Saturday night about 10 pm I had most of the sermon finished except that last illustration… so I prayed to God asking for His help. At that point, it was like I got “nudged” and into my mind came a question: “What is tomorrow?”
As I’ve said, I’d become so distracted by this sermon series on prayer that I had forgotten all about the importance of that day. But now I remembered: “It’s Miracle Sunday.”
Then another thought entered my mind: “How much do you need?”
(pause…) I remember thinking that - if this was God talking to me - this could be the greatest sermon I had ever preached. But if it was just my over-active imagination bringing up this thought Sunday could become a complete disaster. There were people in the congregation who would chew me up and spit me out at the drop of a hat.
So, I called about four people I could count on to pray with me (they were people who were not wealthy - I viewed that as cheating) and then I called our church treasurer:
“Mark,” I said, “I need you count the offering tomorrow during the worship service, rather than afterward as you usually do.” The reason: he was going to be my closing illustration. I was going to tell the congregation that the offering was going to be $10,000 dollars and then he was to come out and tell us exactly what we’d received.
The next day I could feel that I had a good sermon. Preachers will often tell you they can feel when a sermon is working for them. There’s a sense that the message almost takes over for them and that God is leading in what they say. That’s what was happening for me that day.
Then I got to the part of the sermon where I asked the congregation what was special about this particular Sunday.
“Miracle Sunday” came the answer.
“How much do we need?” I asked”
“$10,000” many responded.
Then I pulled out a calculator. I pretended to punch the buttons as I explained that there were a certain number of people there that day – so many were farmers, so many were retired, so many were children – and according to my calculations, the best we would come up with that day would about $5600 (one of our Elders had speculated that number earlier). “How many of you think that would be a pretty good response today?” I asked.
No one seemed particularly excited about that.
Then I said “You know, there’s a problem here. This is my calculator. Let me show God’s calculator”, and I had them turn to Leviticus 26. There it says
“If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands… Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. Leviticus 26:3 & 8.
“Oh, that can’t be right,” I said. We just came out of Desert Storm and the experts told us we had to outnumber the enemy 2 to 1 (or at least have equal parity) in order to assure success. But here God is telling us that doesn’t matter. If you obey Him, you could be outnumbered a hundred to one… and you’d still win! That’s God’s kind of calculator.”
I asked “How many of you have prayed that God would supply $10,000 today?”
About 2/3’s of the congregation shot up their hands.
“Well, because you have obeyed God by being faithful in prayer on this matter, I’m convinced that He’s going to supply us with $10,000 today. In fact, I’m so convinced that I’ve asked Mark to count the money during our worship service, and he’s going to come now and tell you how much we’ve received.”
Out stepped Mark, and he didn’t comfortable. In fact, he kind of looked like someone had just shot his dog.
I figured I’d bought the farm on this one, but I was committed now. “How much do we have Mark?” I asked.
“We have… ten thousand, nine hundred, ninety nine dollars and ninety six cents” (he had been nervous because he’d never handled that much money before).
The audience erupted in cheers and it was a story that defined our congregation for the next few years.
But that incident taught me something new. That congregation had been good stewards in setting aside their $100,000… but it had all been about themselves. God really wasn’t being depended upon to supply that amount. But once they became trapped with a debt that they had neither expected nor wanted that they had to depend upon God. Miracle Sunday was God’s way of forcing them depend upon Him.
GOD FORCED THEM OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE in order to prove to them what HE could do. He forced them to ask if they really believed what they said they did.
Being forced out of our comfort zone is about THE ONLY WAY we can avoid falling into the trap of the Jews of Nazareth. The only way we can avoid the temptation of unbelief is to either choose or be forced into actively look for God to step out of the box. To actively watch for Him to do something miraculous.
ILLUS: I’ve compared that experience to “catching a wave”. Have you ever seen a surfer out in the ocean watching the waves make their way to shore? They’ll wait for just the right wave and then “catch it” and ride it to the beach.
Last summer the kids and Diana and I went up to Lake Michigan and played in the surf. The waves weren’t overwhelming, but it was still fun to “catch a wave’ and ride for a little while.
In a church, there are also some “catch the wave” moments, and your Elders and I have come to the conclusion that we’re in one of those moments here in this church. Gary spoke to us last Sunday and explained many of the concepts behind it.
Now, stewardship campaigns are focused on money, but had really intrigued us about Mr. Edwards’ presentation was it’s focus on prayer (we’ll be going thru a 21 days of prayer focus in November) and it’s emphasis on faith and involving people in ministry. The financial end of the program was interesting, but it held less appeal for us than these other aspects.
Thus, we learned that this campaign involved “Pledge cards” we decided to make a minor change in the concept. Usually, what a lot of churches do a stewardship program like this and they’ll ask people to fill out “pledge cards”, where the people are to write down their name and how much they feel God is leading them to give.
The Elders spent a great deal of time thinking about this and decided to change the pledge cards… leaving no space to place a person’s name. We don’t want to know who is pledging to give what amount of money. Scripture says that when we give to God we should “not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” (Matthew 6:3).
We are going to challenge you to make a financial commitment over the next 3 years but that will be in the form of “UNSIGNED cards” we’ll ask you to submit (so we can keep track of how much has been committed). No one (outside of God) will know what anybody else has decided to give.
We talked this over with Gary, and he said he was excited about what we’re challenging ourselves to do. Our approach was going to require us to rely more on our faith in God and that was great.
We believe we are in a “catch the wave” moment, and part of what has convinced us of that is the number of new people that have. started coming to worship with us over the past couple of months. It’s like God opened the flood gates and started bringing new people to us. But they only started coming once we made the commitment to step out on faith in this program.
So, we’ve decided to dream big. We’ve set a vision for our congregation
· not only to challenge ourselves to deeper prayer (21 days of prayer in Nov)
· not only to involving people in ministry in this particular program with Mr. Edward
· but to set a dream of $1 million dollar
10% of what we actually comes in will go to Lincoln Christian College (as we agreed with Mr. Edwards)
10% will go towards missions – maybe even supporting a full time missionary
The rest will go toward our expanding our ministry/ building.
Can we do that?
No… we can’t.
But God can.
WE BELIEVE that we serve a big God
And WE BELIEVE that this vision stretches us enough so that the only way it can be accomplished is by the power of our God.
Now, if we don’t make a $1 million dollar commitment as a church in this campaign I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Do you know why? It’s because I’m convinced that if we our part in this program… if we focus on prayer and faithfulness and making our financial commitments as we feel led by God…He’ll supply what we don’t.
CLOSE: Do you remember that story about the last church I served? They had enough money to build their new foyer… but they didn’t have the money for the new sanctuary they envisioned. Well, a few years after I left their pulpit to begin preaching for you, a relative of one of the members said that she wanted to donate some land she owned in California to the church. They sold the land… and guess how much money they got from that sale? One million dollars. They built such an impressive building from that donation that it would make your eyes pop. But God supplied that money for them. And He’ll do the same for us… if we are faithful.
