UNLOCKING POTENTIAL
Text: Matthew 13:31 - 33
Have you ever underestimated the potential of anything? It only takes a spark to get a fire going right? Just think of the potential that lies within a match. One match has the potential to burn down a forest.
When Jesus told the parable of the mustard seed, He was talking about potential that had not yet been unlocked. The potential of a seed never becomes unlocked if it never gets the atmosphere it needs to develop. God never meant for seeds to be idle. Seeds carry the ability for life and growth.
It seems that Jesus used the mustard seed as a metaphor for perfection. The Greek word for perfection is telios which means “completion”. Were ships made to be dormant in harbors? Were cars made only to be parked in garages? Was God’s Holy word given to us in the form of a Bible to sit and collect dust on our bookshelves? Obviously the seed has a purpose which is to grow to completion. Ships, cars and Bibles are incomplete if they are not used for the purpose for which they were created.
The mustard seed is an agent of change----a catalyst. William Barclay said the point of this parable is that … “The kingdom of heaven starts from the smallest beginnings, but no man knows where it will end.” (William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Matthew. Revised Edition. Volume 2. Philadelphia: Westminster press 1975, p. 76). God wants us perfect----complete and fruitful like the mustard seed. With God all things are possible. There is no way to estimate the work that God begins in us that influences others.
One of the things that parable points out is that actions have consequences. That means that we have choices that have consequences both good and bad.
CHOICES
Why does God give us choices? 1) Predestined toward salvation: We live in a fallen world where God’s activity to bring salvation to all who will repent is at work. 2) Free will: God gave us the ability to make choices based upon our free will. 3) The deceiver and idol choices: Will we choose God in a fallen world where Satan lies are like mirages in the desert? Desert mirages give the illusion that what we see will satisfy our thirst.
Illustration: Someone (Madeleine L’Engle) put it this way: “The problem of pain, war, and the horror of war, of poverty, and disease is always confronting us. But a God who allows no pain, no grief, also allows us no choice. There is little unfairness in a colony of ants, but there is also little freedom. We human beings have been given … this ability to make choices, to help write our own story, is what makes us human ….even when we make the wrong choices, abusing our freedom and the freedom of others.” (Madeleine L’Engle. Walking on Water. Harold Shaw, 1972 [ Copied from Dr. Daniel Lioy ed. The KJV International Lesson Commentary: September 200- August 2009. Colorado Springs, Colorado: David C. Cook, 2008, p. 421). We cannot escape the reality of knowing that our decisions have consequences for us as well as those who observe us!
Does God work through our choices? There is the story of a seminary student named John Wimbe r who used an opportunity to witness to a fellow student who was not a believer. His fellow student gave a 30-minute explanation why he could not be a Christian. God obviously spoke through Wimber when he asked, “Do you know what a breech baby is?” “Yes” said his fellow student. Wimber responded, “Well that’s what you are … and God has sent me to get you delivered.” That fellow student began to sob and acknowledged Jesus as his savior. … Afterward, the student asked Wimber how he knew the analogy of a breech baby would speak to his heart. God had simply used Wimber as a mouthpiece. “Before seminary, the [unbelieving] student had been an army nurse who had helped deliver many breech babies!” (Dr. Daniel Lioy ed. The KJV International Lesson Commentary: September 200- August 2009. Colorado Springs, Colorado: David C. Cook, 2008, p. 420). Never underestimate what God can do! Matthew 10:19-20 says, “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. (20) For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (ESV).
Have you ever been shocked by a reality check of a decision that you thought was not important? Consider this quote from Benjamin Franklin …
“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/626466-for-the-want-of-a-nail-the-shoe-was-lost
The choices we make about God’s kingdom are far greater than we can imagine.
CONSEQUENCES
Can confidence and negligence co-exist? Of course they can, but that does not lessen the consequences of choices that were made. 1) Parabolic examples: When Jesus told parables, it prompted those who heard to make decisions about God’s kingdom. Someone can be confident in the flesh and still neglect God’s offer of salvation which will have eternal consequences! Remember Lazarus and the rich man who neglected him (Luke 16:19-31)? Remember the rich foolish man who had more grain than he had barns to store them in (Luke 12:16- 21)? 2) The moral of the story: Neither money nor material possessions can save us! Why else would Jesus have said “Blessed are the poor in spirit” for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3)? There are no treasures here on earth that we can take with us because “naked we came and naked we will return (Ecclesiastes 15:5; Job 1:21).
Do we live on the outside only? 1) Mortal: People who live on the outside compete with what others think of them. They live their lives striving to make people around them see them as they wish to be seen. They want others to see them as successful by their material things. They want others around them to respect them. They live their lives trying gain the world at the expense of forfeiting their souls (Mark 8:36). Someone (R. C. Trench) once said, “The great schemes of this world have a proud beginning, a miserable end----like the towers of Babel; but the works of God, most of all His church, have a slight beginning, with a gradual increase, and a glorious consummation. So it is with His kingdom in every single heart”. (Richard Chenevix Trench. Notes On The Parables Of Our Lord. Grand Rapids: Baker Booke House, 1990 (tweny-fifth printing), p. 40). God wants us to establish our hearts in Him (I Thessalonians 3:13; James 5:8).
2) Eternal: In Matthew 13:15-16 Jesus explains the reason for parables. In the New Testament, the Greek word for heart is Kardia and that word is used much in modern day medicine in things that pertain to the heart. God looks at the heart through spiritual lenses (Jeremiah 17:9). The heart was always thought of as the seat of one’s emotions. God wants us to have our hearts established in Him. Jesus’s parables are like a mirror that show us where we are in relationship to where God wants us to be. The rebellious hearted are usually hard-hearted. Those with hardened hearts do not see and hear too well when God is trying to reach them!
REFORMATION
Are reformation and negligence compatible? Just recently (7/30/2017) we had a local Gideon, Joe Lewis give a report here at Indian Filed UMC. In his report, he mentioned how the gospel is taking off in China. He said that China may one day be the world’s biggest nations with a Christian population. Obviously, there has been attentiveness on the part of Gideons and others who have helped to spread the Gospel in China. That kind of reformation cannot happen where there is negligence!
ILLUSTRATION: “On a warm autumn afternoon, Anna Flores, thirty-six, was walking with her toddler in downtown Chicago. Without warning a window from the twenty-ninth floor of the CNA building fell to the ground, striking Flores in the head and killing her.
The tragedy was heightened a week later when CNA officials admitted they had known the window had been broken since June. They hadn’t fixed it because other building projects were considered more of a priority.
In a public building, negligence has serious consequences. Spiritual negligence also has great consequences. In various ways, we are responsible spiritually for the welfare of others”. (Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof. gen. eds. 1001 Illustrations That Connect . [—— Greg Asimakoupoulos, “Consequence of Negligence,” PreachingToday.com]. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2008). Are we negligent with the Gospel? How many people might not reach Heaven because we were attentive and fruitful in making disciples?
Is it enough to know the right thing? 1) Known by God: I Corinthians 8:1 says, “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know what he ought to know. But the Man who loves God is known by God” (NIV). 2) God searches our hearts: Jeremiah 17:9-10 says, "The heart is more deceitful than anything. It is incurable—who can know it? (10) I am the LORD who searches the heart, who tests the inner depths to give to each person according to what he deserves, according to the fruit of his deeds (ISV). God wants us to share what we know with the least, the lost and the last!
How can others have the eyes of their hearts opened without if we are negligent? How can others be transformed if we do not share how we have been reformed in our hearts? 1) Removing the curse: I’ve said it before and I say it again! Malachi 3:8-9 says “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. (9) You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you” (ESV). God wants our best not what we have left! If that is true in financial stewardship, and the attentiveness in our stewardship, then is it not also true in evangelical stewardship? 2) Reformation starts in the heart: Ephesians 1:17-18 says “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the most glorious Father, would give you a wise spirit, along with revelation that comes through knowing the Messiah fully. (18) Then, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you will know the confidence that is produced by God having called you, the rich glory that is his inheritance among the saints”, (ISV). Could it be that we lack revival in America because the church is not fully attentive in our financial stewardship, our attentiveness in the stewardship of responsibility and our evangelical stewardship? Could it be that we are not loving God with our whole being and our neighbors as ourselves? Are not all of these things related? Did God intend for the mustard seed potential in us not to reach its full capacity?
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
