CASUAL ATTITUDE OR COMMITTED ACTION?
Mark 11:1-11
INTRO.- ILL.- A preacher was riding on a plane filled with people and cigarette smoke. (Of course, this had to be some time ago since we know that smoking is now banned on airplanes.) The preacher knew he would have to take a bath, and send his clothes to the cleaners. He felt like he had been charcoal-broiled, Burger King style.
Suddenly he turned to a woman and said, "Would you like to chew my gum for awhile?" The lady was insulted. "What in the world do you mean?" she snapped. The preacher calmly replied by saying, "I’ve been smoking your secondhand smoke ever since we left the city. I thought you might want my secondhand gum."
Brothers and sisters, that is what I call "indifference." Many people are completely indifferent to those around them. They don’t know and they don’t care. They don’t know who they are and they don’t care who they are. And they don’t care if their smoke gets in someone else’s face.
Indifference is bad. It’s a bad trait in anybody. It’s a bad attitude. If Scripture teaches us anything at all about life it teaches us that we are to be considerate of the people around us: at home, at work, at play, etc.
Rom. 12:10 "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." We are not quick to do that, but we should be.
Indifference is bad when it is aimed at people. It’s worse when it is aimed at God.
Our text deals with the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The words "triumphal entry" indicate a good response to Jesus, but it wasn’t always that way.
PROP.- Most people respond to Christ in one of two ways:
1- Casual attitude
2- Committed action
I. CASUAL ATTITUDE
ILL.- Dr. Margaret Mead, distinguished anthropologist and author, made a very interesting observation in an address some time ago. She pointed out that for a long time it was the universal custom to say on parting: "Good-bye," which is a shortened form of "God be with you." Today it is quite common instead to say: "Take it easy."
Many people have the "take it easy" attitude about a lot of things in life. Don’t take it seriously. Take it easy.
This is also the attitude, the casual attitude that many people have toward God and Christ and the church. Don’t worry about it. Don’t take it seriously. Take it easy!
People did not always respond positively to Jesus. To His life, to His ministry, to His love.
John 6:66 "From this time many of his disciples (followers) turned back and no longer followed him."
Some disciples stopped following Jesus because they didn’t like or receive His teaching. It’s easy to have an indifferent or casual attitude when you don’t like what is being taught.
ILL.- The young preacher thrilled his congregation with his first sermon. But the next Sunday he preached the same message. And the third Sunday he preached it again. Finally, one of the deacons was getting concerned. He went to the young minister and asked, "That’s a great sermon you’ve been preaching, but don’t you have another sermon you could preach?"
The young preacher replied, "I’ve got quite a few sermons, and as soon as you do something with the one I’ve been preaching I’ll preach a new one!"
Brothers and sisters, I try to make my sermons as interesting and as clear as possible. I want to bless and benefit people, not blister or bust them up. I want to help people.
But even in my sermons there are things that I present for you to do, to respond to, etc. And I have noticed that many times our response is not overwhelming. In fact, often it is ho-hum. It is casual. It is "take it easy, preacher. Calm down. Cool it. We’ll do it if we want or when we get around to it."
But that is the wrong attitude to have toward the Lord and His Word, toward the presentation of His Word.
John 14:23 Jesus said, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
I say, "Come on in, Lord! Make yourself at home! Here, have my recliner! I’ll sit here before you!"
Brothers and sisters, a casual attitude is not kosher. It is not condoned in Scripture nor by the Savior.
II. COMMITTED ACTION
A few rare souls become committed in their action to a cause or a person.
ILL.- In 1873 a group of women at Hillsboro, Ohio, met and prayed and then read the 146th Psalm. Then they prayed and pleaded with the saloon keepers to give up their business. Church bells tolled simultaneously with the crusade of prayer and persuasion. On the second day one saloon keeper gave in. He gave his entire stock to the women saying, "Do as you please with it."
At the end of eight days, every one of the eleven saloons in the town closed. The brewers of Cincinnati offered $5,000 reward to anyone who would break up the movement. One unusually courageous man tried to do so. In four days he threw up his hands and surrendered to the women. This crusade of prayer and persuasion led to the formation in 1874 of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
I call what those women did "committed action." They were committed to their cause and they acted strongly on their commitment. We need more people like that in the Lord’s church.
ILL.- Dr. R. E. Neighbour was in the baptistry with a railroad engineer. The pastor was ready to proceed with the baptismal service. "Wait!" whispered the engineer; "I forgot something. I want to return to the dressing room, and get my billfold and let you baptize it with me!"
That’s committed action! That man recognized the importance of surrendering his whole life to the Lord, finances included.
Generally, if you can get a person to surrender his finances to the Lord, you’ve got his heart and his whole life. Money is the mover in most people’s lives. It moves them in one direction or another: toward the Lord in appreciation or away from the Lord in selfishness.
Mark 11:2 Jesus said to his disciples, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there....untie it and bring it here...."
Mark 11:4 "They went and found a colt outside in the street..."
I realize that what Jesus commanded his disciples to do in regard to his triumphal entry was extremely simple, but still, they did what He said.
Sometimes it’s is the so-called simple stuff that we fail to do. Simple to understand, but difficult to do.
John 13:34 Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
Demonstrating love for one another sounds so simple, but it is sometimes hard to do. Especially, when we think in terms of loving people like Jesus loved them.
ILL.- An experienced surgeon addressed a question to a young intern assisting him during an operation. "Young man," he asked, "Whom do you consider the most important person in this room?"
The intern groped for an answer. He thought of responding, "You are, Sir," but he couldn’t believe that his mentor would be that self-serving. Finally, thinking he would sound gracious, the intern replied, "Well, I suspect it would be the nurses who assist you in such an efficient manner." The surgeon shook his head. "No," he said, "The most important individual in this operating room is the patient."
One of the major things that Jesus has been trying to teach us in life is that the patient is most important. That hurting people are most important. That we should love them as He loved them.
And we should not be casual about it. We should be committed to them with loving actions.
CONCLUSION-----------------------------------
Casual attitude or committed action? Which characterizes your life in relation to Christ?
ILL.- Church members may be divided into three classes: wishbones, jawbones, and backbones. The wishbones are always wishing and hoping that their church will somehow grow but without their effort. The jawbones talk a lot, but do little. And the backbones do the work.
Casual or committed? Which are you?
