WHERE’S THE BENCH?
Texts: Matthew 7:26 & James 1:22
Matthew 7:26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand (NRSV).
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves (NRSV).
“ Gayle Grinds lived with a man who tried to get her up off the couch. But she got comfortable, She had plenty to eat, plenty to watch—-everything she needed at arm’s distance. This went on for six years. She sat so long that she literally could not get up.
One day rescue workers were called to the scene. They were horrified by the scene and the stench. They had to wear protective gear. She sat on that couch so long that she became one with it as her skin had literally grafted with the fabric. The end of the story is that she died still attached to that couch”. (Arron Chambers. Go. Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing, 2009, p. 11). Being constantly stationary and comfortable for six years had cost Gail her life. Certainly, God knew the plans with a future and a hope that He had for Gail (Jeremiah 29:11) but she never accomplished those plans because by her own choice she never made it past that couch.
One of God’s biggest problems with the church is complacency. It has been a problem in every age. One of biggest the problems of complacency is wanting someone else to do it. That was Gail’s problem. How much is complacency a problem for us? Do we think complacency is someone else’s problem?
If the Church had not been complacent in the last six decades, then Madolyn Murray O’Hare would not have succeeded in taking prayer our of the public schools. If the Church had not been complacent, then Roe versus Wade would never have been successful in being passed by SCOTUS. How many Christians in both instances thought “Somebody else will do it?”
Today we will explore dreams, obedience and kingdom building against the background of complacency.
DREAMS
Do you or did you have dreams for your children?
1) Parental dreams: Did you dream that your children would grow up to be a success? If you are raising children right now, are you dreaming of the future successes of your child or children? What parent(s) would not want the best for their children?
2) Potential: Wouldn’t you want your children to do all that they can to unlock potential? Did your parents expect the best from you when you were growing up?
Do you believe that God has dreams for His children?
In his book Dream, Discovering God’s Purpose for Your Life, Dutch Sheets, describes how Abraham was a dreamer. “Abraham was a dreamer, maybe one of the greatest ever. God liked that about him - at that time in history, He desperately needed a dreaming friend. The Lord had been waiting for just the right dreamer to come along, one He could partner with to recapture His dream. These two friends walked together for many years, enjoyed a special covenant with one another, and modeled for all of us the power and beauty of divine-human partnership. Their story begins in Genesis 12, where God initiates His plan by instilling a dream in Abraham”. [Dutch Sheets Dream, Discovering God’s Purpose for Your Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2012), pp 85-91.]. Do you believe that God has dreams for His children today?
Do you believe that God has plans and dreams for this church?
1) God’s Dream for this church: Did God’s dreams for this church ever die? Doesn’t God have plans for this church with a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11)? If God’s dreams for this church seem impossible, is it because we gave up? Aren’t all things possible with God? If God started with seventy-five year-old Abraham, then why are we surprised that God calls us to participate in this dream in our time?
2) Linking arms with God: We have to work with what we have and all we have to work with is what we have until we link arms with God and follow where God leads us to bless us!
OBEDIENCE
Did Abraham always obey God?
1) Obedience and God’s promise: Abraham obeyed God and followed God. God called Abraham and promised him three things---- a great nation, land and a lineage. God promised Abraham that he would be a blessing---- the father of many nations who would be blessed through the ages(Genesis 12: 1 – 7). God told Abraham he would possess the land. (According to Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:4 the land God gave to Israel included: everything from the Nile River in Egypt to Lebanon (south to north) and everything from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River (west to east). https://www.nationalwarcouncil.org/2019/12/29/original-land-promised-to-abraham-genesis-1518-and-current-boundaries/. In the New Testament, we know that the blessing of Abraham continues through Jesus Christ would came from his family tree to save the world! The lineage promise was the greatest of these promises and Paul explains the connection. Paul tells us that if we belong to Christ then you are Abraham's seed, and [are] heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29 NIV).
2) Abraham also disobeyed God: God promised Abaraham a son and both Abaraham and Sarah got impatient because Sarah was up in years and suggested that Abraham get his male heir through their maidservant Hagar (Genesis 151 – 5 & Genesis 16:1- 4).
Doesn’t disobedience always have consequences?
1) Arabian horses: “Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.
“Now this may be severe but when you are on the trackless desert of Arabia and your life is entrusted to a horse, you had better have a trained obedient horse. We must accept God's training and obey Him”. http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/o/obedience.htm
2) Stiff-necked: One of the biblical metaphors for stubbornness and disobedience is to be called stiff-necked. “As it is figuratively used, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the word means "stubborn," "untractable," "not to be led." The derivation of the idea was entirely familiar to the Jews, with whom the ox was the most useful and common of domestic animals. It was especially used for such agricultural purposes as harrowing and plowing (Judges 14:18; 1 Corinthians 9:9)”. https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/stiff-necked/ Have you ever been called stiff-necked? Has your spouse ever called you stiff-necked or stubborn? Doesn’t make us mad when the shoe fits?
3) Linking arms with God: We have to work with what we have and all we have to work with is what we have until we link arms with God and follow where God leads us to bless us!
KINGDOM BUILDING
Hasn’t our Heavenly Father called us to build His kingdom?
1) The Lord’s Prayer: If you have ever prayed the Lord’s Prayer, and we all have, then we should be familiar with that part of the prayer where we pray as Jesus taught us in that prayer…. “Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven …” Every time we pray those words we are asking God to help us help build His kingdom!
2) Lip service: Is it possible that we can pray those words where we serve God with our mouths and not our hearts and lives? Consider Isaiah 29:13 “The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught” (NIV). Is this where we are right now? Is this who we are right now?
3) The purpose of preaching: The purpose of preaching is not to make everyone comfortable! The purpose of preaching is to comfort the uncomfortable and to disturb the comfortable. “for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (14) How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Rom 10:13-14 NIV).
Most of the preachers I know are full time, fully invested in preaching God’s Word not because it is a job, but because it is our entire life invested in answering God’s call!
What about complacency?
1) Complacency defined: “Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. "Good enough" becomes today's watchword and tomorrow's standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course -- downhill. They draw false strength from looking back. Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, p. 15. http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/c/complacency.htm Does this definition define us? How does it describe us? What are some changes we need to make? Are complacency and evangelism compatible?
2) Offensive behaviors: I have heard of a Baptist Church that did not want to grow because they were afraid that newcomers might disturb their comfort zone! They could not answer God’s call to be Kingdom builders as His people in that congregation until they let go and let God!
I heard of another Baptist Church near the beach that did not want their church members with pick up trucks parking in the front of the church. They did not want the image of being a church of rednecks. The end result was that the front lot was full of cars and the back lot was full of trucks noticeable to anyone who passed by.
3) Benches: Are there any benches in God’s kingdom here on earth? You will not find the word bench anywhere in the Bible. When I played high school football, I was a bench warmer on game night and a practice dummy during the week getting ready for game night. There were 55 players and if you were not on first or second string, then you did not get much playing time. I have always wondered if we could have won those state championship games in the 3A division my last two years of high school if the coaches had used all of us instead of burning out the first two strings in those games. I think about all the unlocked potential and effectiveness of the other thirty-players who could have made all of the difference! The point is that God calls us all to participate in building His Kingdom!
4) Linking arms with God: We have to work with what we have and all we have to work with is what we have until we link arms with God and follow where God leads us to bless us!
5) The Judges bench: Jesus had two disciples, James and John who wanted special seating beside Him in glory (Mark 10:35 – 37). Some want special seating on this side of glory where someone else can do the work, Sitting is not a sin, but complacency is a sin because it misses the mark of who we are called to be and what we are called to do! Jesus did not sit down until He finished what God sent Him to do! “But when this Priest had offered the one supreme sacrifice for sin for all time He sat down on a throne at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12 TPT). The only bench in God's kingdom is in Heaven at the right hand of God the Father where Jesus is sitting now!
2 Timothy 4:8 says “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (NIV). The one thing that we want to hear the Lord say to us is “Well done” not “wicked, lazy and complacent”!
In God’s Kingdom here on earth, there is no bench!
God did not call us to watch someone else to do what God has called all of us to do!
God did not call us to procrastinate!
God did not call us to be foolish and disobedient!
God called us to hear and to obey our calling!
God did not call us to be complacent!
God did not call us to wait around until we get what we want before we participate!
Have you ever heard the quote of “Twenty percent of the people doing eighty percent of the work?”
God calls us to one hundred percent participation!
How can we ever answer the call to build God’s kingdom if we are complacent? All hands on deck! All players on the field!
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
