Saved By Your Ears

Bunbury

Wed pm

10/11/2010

“Saved by your ears”

Intro: A 6 year old boy gives us the introduction to our text this morning by virtue of an incredible thing that happened to him – his life was saved by his ears!!!

*** A SIX-YEAR-OLD Chinese boy was left dangling by his ears eight storeys above a bustling street after he slipped through window bars outside of his family's apartment. Passers-by were stunned when they heard little Ming Ming's terrified screams and looked up to see him hanging by his head, The Sun newspaper reported.

The only thing stopping the lad from plunging to his death was the fact his head was wedged between two window bars. Horrified neighbours in Yichang, Hubei Province, could only watch as emergency services raced to the scene. They eventually arrived and managed to use a hydraulic pressure expander to force the bars apart and pulled Ming Ming back into his apartment.

The accident happened after the boy's grandfather left him sleeping in the flat so he could run an errand outside. The boy woke up to find himself alone and is believed to have fallen from the window while looking out for his grandfather.

Fire service spokesman Wang Shen said the boy had a miraculous escape: "He could have fallen to the ground - or have been suffocated - at any minute."

I’m sure that many of you have already heard about this young boy.

But what few of us have thought about is that his incident gives us a real life illustration of God’s plan for saving every one of us.

God’s plan is to save us by our ears!

So tonight I want to minister a message called ‘Saved by your ears’.

Text: Matthew 13:18-23 (NKJV) 18“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

# 1. Hearing distractions.

A. One of the big problems we have in life is hearing distractions.

a. It’s amazing how we can miss things that we would otherwise take notice of b/c of a hearing distraction.

i. You’ve probably noticed this y/s & you might have even used it to your advantage at some time.

ii. It’s possible someone was heading towards something you didn’t want them to see so you made a noise & distracted their attention to divert them.

iii. Babysitters u/s the power of a hearing distraction when they need take the baby’s attention away from mum while she slips out the door – make a noise get them looking elsewhere!

iv. Parents of teenagers also u/s how much influence a hearing distraction can have on their children...... trying to talk to them while they are listening to the ipod.

b. What we hear many times is going to determine also what we see.

i. In other words our focus can be shifted into a certain direction simply b/c of what you’re hearing.

ii. Much in the same manner that we make a noise to distract a baby & get it’s attention on a certain thing while mum slips out of the room.

*** Everyone tends to float off into space once in a while and fail to see what is sitting there right in front of them. Recently researchers decided to put the theory of “in-attentional blindness” to the test: the unicycling clown test. They documented real-world examples of people who were so distracted by their cell phone use that they failed to see the bizarre occurrence of a unicycling clown passing them on the street. The study is published in an upcoming issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Compared with individuals walking alone, in pairs, or listening to their ipod, cell phone users were the group most prone to oblivious behaviour: only twenty-five percent of them noticed the unicycling clown. The walkers not using a cell phone noticed the clown over fifty-percent of the time.

iii. So here’s the point – not only what we hear but what we are really listening to is of vital impt to us.