(Note to reader- Just before the sermon, a video clip from TLC's show "While You Were Out" was played. The clip was about a professional football player, Marcellus,redoing his sister's living room while she was away. He did not consult with her prior to making the decisions about the remodelling.)
So what do you think? Will Marcellus’ sister be impressed? Will she like the new color scheme? Will she like the second window, having her television moved, and the fireplace redesigned? Will she miss her inset mirror and glass shelves? Will his sister strangle him when she finds out what he’s done? How well does Marcellus really know his sister’s likes and dislikes?
When this sermon series gets done, you are going to think that the only thing I do is watch television. Well that is just not true! Sometimes I eat or even sleep while watching television!
Is God ever really absent from us?
At its core, "While You Were Out" is really a parable. It is a parable about our relationship with God and about how we go about trying to please God in what we perceive to be his absence. It's not unlike the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 (NIV). Jesus tells a story about a man who is, "going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.” Matthew 25:14-15(NIV)
In their master’s absence, the servants make different assumptions about what will please their master. Matthew 25:16-18 (NIV) continues. "The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”
There is a lot more at stake in Jesus’ parable than there is in the show "While You Were Out." When the master returns, will he be pleased with his servants? Will each servant hear the words in Matthew 25:21 (NIV), “well done, good and faithful servant?” Or will the master be angry?
What changes did you think would matter?
In your sermon outline there is a question. What changes did you think would matter? One day the master of the house will return. He will ask each of us, his servants who have been entrusted with his property, "What did you do while I was out?" What assumptions are you making about what will truly matter to God on that day? "God, while you were out, I assumed it was better to bury my talents in a hole and hide them ratherthan to invest them for your kingdom and glory." "God, while you were out,I poured my heart, mind, body and soul into my work, being successful in my career, building that business, preparing for retirement, pleasing my wife, remodeling my home, watching television, surfing the internet, chasing after my kids, doing school stuff, sports stuff, vacationing, recreating, church activities, and pursuing happiness."
"God, I’m sorry. While you were out, the stuff of life just kind of took over! I didn’t realize how little these things would matter from the perspective of eternity. Sorry." "God, while you were out, I didn’t really get to know you that much. I kind of got out of step with your Holy Spirit. I didn’t notice those sins gaining a foothold. I didn’t find much time to use my talents to serve your body. I never really thought about sharing my faith with that neighbor I’ve known for years. I probably should have?"
When the master returns, will he find faith on the earth? Will he be pleased with us? Will he say, "well done, good and faithful servant?" Will he become angry over our wickedness and spiritual laziness? Our biggest problem is that we live in God’s absence instead of living in his presence. Like Adam and Eve, we hide ourselves from God while we do what we think matters. Instead of hiding from God or sending God away, how much better would we be if we invited God into the center of our lives and said, "God, I’m not going to forfeit my soul. Just show me what is your will. What most pleases you? What would put a smile on your face? What truly matters from the perspective of eternity?"
What truly matters from the perspective of eternity?
This is where attending church, fellowshipping with Christians, going to Sunday school, belonging to a Life Group, worshiping God, reading your Bible, and praying becomes critically important. It doesn’t make any sense to guess or make assumptions about what pleases God. People who do not make church attendance a regular habit, who do not study the scriptures regularly with God’s people, and who do not spend time seeking God’s will in prayer, make dangerous assumptions about what pleases God. God has revealed his good, pleasing and perfect will to us. It’s not some mystery. He wants us to know what pleases him. He wants us to be good and faithful servants.
When Lara and I were remodeling our lower level after the Mother’s Day flood of 2002, I knew better than to make assumptions about what would please Lara. I took Lara to Menards and Lowes, with me, and asked her, "What color paint? What texture on thedropped ceiling?What style of trim? Which vanity? Which tile? Which faucet? What pattern of carpet? What color stain? Yes maam!" When you love someone, you seek her will before your own. You don’t guess. You don’t make assumptions. You don’t take foolish risks. You find out what pleases her.
And so, do you love God? If you love God, you will seek his will. And you will stop guessing and stop making assumptions. Ephesians 5:10 (NIV) simply says,"and find out what pleases the Lord.”
There is something else that should be said. It doesn’t make any sense to attempt change in our lives apart from God. It doesn’t make any sense to send God away while we struggle alone with all the stuff of life. 2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV) has this to say about God. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
Not only does God tell us what pleases him, he gives us everything we need for life and godliness. In ourselves, we do not have what it takes to please God. We are sinners. We continually fall short of God’s glory. Our righteousness is like filthy rags. We need God’s presence and power with us if we are to have any hope of pleasing him. It is through Christ alone that we can ever hope to participate in God’s divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
God's top four list of changes.
So, "While You Were Out" is a parable of how we foolishly send God away while we attempt to please him in our own wisdom and in our own strength. How much better that we walk with him in his will, fully relying on his strength. For the remainder of our time, I want you consider some of the changes God wants to make in our lives. All four of these changes bring God great pleasure. And for any of them to become a reality, we must fully trust in God.
Can you wrap your heart and mind around this?
Consider Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23 (NIV) where he says. "For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."
Do you want to please God? Then, wrap your heart and mind around God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. How well do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know why he had to die on a cross for your sins? Do you know why his sacrifice allows us to be accepted by God? Do you know why Jesus’ resurrection gives us the hope of our own resurrection? Have you come to know Jesus Christ’s incomparably great power? Have you come to know the fullness of God personally in the face of Christ?
God doesn’t have to be a mystery to you any longer! God is right here among us. He is making himself known to us through his Son Jesus Christ. Pray to God right now, "God, I want you to be real to me. I want to know you. Show yourself to me." What a change it would be if all of us wrapped our hearts and minds around Christ.
How would you like to taste this fruit?
We are just getting warmed up. How would you like to taste some of this fruit? Galatians 5:22-25 (NIV) reminds us that, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."
In the garden Adam and Eve desired the wrong kind of fruit. They wanted to know good and evil, and so they ate of the forbidden tree. Sin didn’t taste as good as it looked. God was displeased, and they were banished from the garden. But God hopes to redeem us through the power of his Holy Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit destroys the fruit of sin in our lives and produces fruit that is desirable to God. Imagine that! God is looking at our lives and being pleased with the fruit that he sees!
The Holy Spirit produces things in us that we cannot produce in ourselves. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Love does not come from our human nature. It comes from God’s divine nature! So you see, the things God most wants to see in our lives, he generously provides! He gives us his only Son Jesus Christ, so that we will know him fully, so that we can be accepted in God’s sight, and so that we receive an inheritance that will never spoil or fade. And God gives us his Holy Spirit, so we can be bear fruit that is pleasing to God’s eye.
Imagine if God didn’t give us his only Son. Could you know God? Imagine if God didn’t give us his Holy Spirit. Could you ever bear any fruit pleasing to God? Pray to God, "God, show me your Son. God, fill me with your Holy Spirit."
Are you prepared to become this kind of church?
Are you prepared to become this kind of church? In Ephesians 4:7-16 (NIV) we read, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: 'When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.' (What does 'he ascended' mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."
It is reassuring to know that God gives us, as a church body,everything we need to please him. This morning after second service we are going to have our annual meeting. Each year a half-dozen people prepare this report that lists the ways God has blessed our church. The meeting only lasts a few minutes, so don’t go skipping out on it! But every year I am reminded how God has given each of us gifts for serving. He’s given some to be pastors and teachers. He’s given some the gifts of serving, some the gifts of evangelism,and some the gifts of giving.
But when you stand back and consider it all, it is overwhelming. This truly is Christ’s body and he gives us everything we need to become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Nothing is lacking in this church, not because of who we are, but because of who Christ is! Pray, "God give us your grace. Give us your gifts. Help us build one another up in love. Help each one do the work you prepared for us to do. Let everyone contribute."
Isn't it great that we don't have to go alone?
And let me finish on this note. Isn’t it great that we don’t have to go alone? In Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) Jesus says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Few things, if any, please God more than when we love the world he died for. Just as Christ came into the world to seek and save the lost, so God wants us to go into all the world making disciples, baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching people to obey the things Christ has commanded. It isn’t just about you and me pleasing God. It is about everyone on earth pleasing God.
That is why Jeff and Laura Wilhoit and Jim and Karen Bettison have spent most of their adult lives in third world countries, translating the Bible. That is why we are sending a dozen kids to Haiti on the mission trip. Thirteen thousand dollars. What a waste of money. Right? Not if we want our young people to understand the worldwide mission and ministry of the church.
But here is the thing. We never go alone into the world. Jesus promises that he will be with us always to the very end of the age. There is no "while you were out" with God. We have full knowledge of what pleases God. It is loving his only Son Jesus Christ, loving his Holy Spirit, loving his body the Church, and loving God’s world enough to go! And not only do we have full knowledge of what pleases God, but God gives us the ability to know and become the very things he asks of us. How great is that?
(Note to reader- the remainder of the video clip from TLC's, "While You Were Out", was played. In it, Marcellus' sister is decidedly underwhelmed by the changes that were made to her home in her absence.)
In the clip we saw, our buddy Marcellus didn’t do so great. He did too much guessing and made the wrong assumptions about what would please his sister. Instead of having her present, he attempted all these changes in her absence. Don’t be like Marcellus!