Set On Jesus!
Sermon for July 31, 2005
1. Good Morning.
Let’s Pray . . . O Lord may the words of my
mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to
You O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.
Amen.
2. Opening comments: What sort of world do you live in? Now I’m not talking here about answers
like “
Let me explain it this way: Your past life – your experiences, your parents, your past choices – have created the “you” that “you” are right now. These past experiences affect the way you look at and experience the world about you. For instance, Randi is a happy positive person so she tends to see the world through her “happy” glasses and always expects things in our life to “work out” for the good eventually.
Do you know anybody else like this?
But there are many of us who because of our personality types and our past experiences and perhaps even because of our body chemistry tend to see the dark or even the sad side of life and so we tend not to expect most things in life to work our for our good or for the good of those we love around us.
Then of course there are others of us who see not the positive nor the negative but just seem to waltz through life taking it as it comes.
But what I’m getting at here is our predisposition, as it were, to see and indeed even experience the world around us through the lens of our own selves.
Now this can be good if our “selves” are healthy and therefore have a buoyant and generous disposition to life but this can also be terribly destructive and debilitating if our “selves” are deeply wounded for we will then tend to see the world through these wounds and our disposition will tend towards defensiveness and perhaps a less than generous openness to those around us.
Now I don’t want to get bogged down in a whole lot of pop psychology here but what I’m getting at is the fact that our “selves” significantly color and therefore affect the way we look at and indeed end up experiencing life.
Some have referred to this as our “mindset.” What they’re alluding to is the way we look at life – our mindset. It’s as if some minds are set on “be happy” while some are set on “be sad.”
Let me suggest a few other Mind settings as it were:
I can go on and on here can’t I
and we could really have some fun but the point here is that each of us at any
given time has a “setting” that our
mind is on.
Let me make this point one more time. Have you ever noticed that you or someone you know can be really happy and then suddenly this mood can change to really angry or really sad or really negative” What’s happened here is that the “setting” in their mind has been “changed” and they therefore then react to the world as a result of this new setting. Moodiness is a good manifestation of the changes in our mindsets in any given day.
Moodiness is a good example of how our mindset can change but I think it can be reasonably argued that for each of us there’s a general mindset that “sets us up” to see life about us in a certain way over time.
3. Focusing in: Now this morning I’m convinced that our Lord wants to give all of us a “Mindset” adjustment. He wants to hit our “mindset” reset button as it were,
I had my aching back adjusted by a chiropractor this last week and I went from pain to relief almost over night. So, with this analogy in mind, I believe that God wants to adjust our ailing mindsets to bring us into the joyful mindset that is ours as Christians – that mindset that predisposes us to look for and find our God in all things! Indeed, that mindset that enables us to face life with a courageous smile on our face because were absolutely secure in the knowledge that God is above, behind, under and around all that is happening in our world and therefore all will ultimately work out for good!
He wants to re-convince many of us or better still to “remind” many of us that He really is in charge of this world and that He really is love and that all that He ultimately allows in this world will work our for good for those of us who love Him and ultimately follow Him!
Let’s listen again to some of the statements from this morning’s Scripture that make this point and then we’ll decide what to do about it.
Listen once again to some of the verses that we’re just read to us:
Isa 55:1 “All who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain
and eat; come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!” What
is God saying to you this morning in these words of promise? Isn’t He saying – “Come to me. I will give you whatever you need.” This reminds us that our God is a lavish
giver!
Does your mindset
make you functionally deaf to this extravagance of God? Does your mindset simply not hear this
seemingly “absurd” promise? Or perhaps
your mindset may cause you to smile inwardly as you sense Him reminding you
that all is well – He’s going to provide for you all the way to glory?
OK, now let’s jump to our Psalm reading –
Ps 145 beginning at verse 8: “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to
anger and of great kindness. Does
your mindset really believe in a kind and merciful God?
Do you expect to experience evidences of
His kindness to you daily? Does your
mindset make you blind to God’s many kindnesses throughout the days of your
life? Let’s read on: The LORD is good to all and compassionate
toward all his works. The hand of the
Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs! . . . The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works. The LORD is
near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth . . . and I would add “and not in denial.” Let me say that last verse again:
“The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth and not in denial!” Ah! that pesky “mindset” thing that can so
treacherously set us up to call upon God out of our unbelief instead of out of
our humble belief.
And now let’s turn to our Second
Oh, He’s here, He’s there, He’s all around
us. The Bible tells us that “we live and move and have our being IN
Him!” (Acts 17:28) But our mindset can predispose us to
functionally not allow us to look for or find Him but rather to find evidences
of His nonexistence! Our mindset is so so so critical to the way we face
and experience life – can you see it?
Even Christians, I believe, can have a
mindset that functionally “disables” as it were God’s ministrations in our
lives. It’s like having a “Spell Check”
capability in your Word Processing program but it’s functionally useless if you
haven’t turned it on.
I think some Christians have functionally
“turned God off” and are living a lie.
They’ve stopped believing in God they just haven’t told themselves or
anyone else yet!
And now finally let’s turn to our Gospel
reading for today: Matt 14 beginning at
verse 13:
“When Jesus got
the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But
unsuccessfully—someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people
from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. 14 When he saw them coming, he was
overcome with pity and healed their sick. :15
Toward evening the disciples approached him. “We’re out in the country and it’s
getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some
supper.” 16 But Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give
them supper.” 17 “All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,”
they said. 18 Jesus said, “Bring them here.” 19 Then he had the people sit on the
grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in
prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then
gave the food to the congregation. 20
They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. 21 About five thousand were fed.
Wow! What a miracle! We’ll come back to this soon but let’s recap. What do all of these readings speak to us about?
Yes, the absolute unmitigated generosity and extravagance of God. The message that God wants to give us this
morning is that He gives freely and extravagantly but will our current mindsets
receive this?
Think about it . . . when the disciples suggested that the people
be released to go and “buy” (aÓgora¿zw, agorazoœ, to buy, purchase) some food, Jesus reacted with “There’s no need for them to go away; give
them some food yourselves!” And when the
astonished disciples point out that they barely have enough for themselves (5
loaves and 2 fish), Jesus “freely” provides more than enough food for the whole
multitude through the miracle of the multiplication!
What is God saying to you and me right now? If God incarnate cares this much for His hungry followers does He not care for you and me in the same way? Does He not want to supply our needs in the same way?
Jesus says to you and me right now, Matt. 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
4. Application: Now what is God saying to us this morning?
No matter what the
circumstance that you’re in or will ever be in – “I am with you and I will
supply for your every need. Indeed, this
is my heart’s desire. This is why I come to you again and again.”
“Are you in debt? Then come to
me and rest with me and then let me help you become free from this burden. I have done this countless times for many many others over the millennia so trust me and come to me.
Are you sick? Then come to me
and rest with me and let me heal you. I
may bring you home to be with me or I may restore your health but either way
you will be with me and that is your ultimate health!
Are you frightened of death, of old age, of not being able to provide
for your family, of not reaching your full potential? Then come to me and rest with me and let me
help you find joy and rest and freedom and true happiness!”
Can you hear our Lord
gently calling out his encouragement to you?
Some of us can but
perhaps some of us can’t and this brings us back to where we began at the
beginning of this reflection – our mindset!
Fundamentally God
wants to “reset” our “mindset” this morning.
He wants to set our mindset default, if you will, to “Trust in God in
all things and at all times!”
Will you let Him reach
into your heart and your mind right now and hit that reset button? All it requires is an act of your will –
albeit very weak – to say “Yes, Lord I want to live a life like that – a life
always looking for and finding you! O
Lord give me this Mind–set – a mind always and ever
set on You! Reset my settings to You! Yes, Lord!
But there’s a final point that God wants to clearly make and it’s got to do with HOW God chooses, as it were, to hit our “reset” button.
Can anyone guess what I’m alluding to here?
Please turn with me to our Gospel lesson for today – Matthew 14 and let’s begin this time at verse 18. Now remember the context. Jesus has decided to feed the multitudes. Listen to what He now says and does:
18 Jesus said, “Bring the - 5 loaves
and 2 fish – to me.” 19 Then he
had the people sit on the grass. He took
the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the
bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. 20 They all ate their fill. They
gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. 21
About five thousand were fed.
Do the words “took, blessed, broke and gave” ring any bells for you?
Yes, in this miracle Jesus is giving us a peak at the ultimate gift to us – Himself in the Eucharist! The priest takes the bread and wine – He blesses it, breaks it and then He gives it to the people!
In this offering, Jesus is anticipating the Eucharist and ultimately the messianic banquet in the Kingdom of God, at the end of time - of which the Eucharist is both foretaste and prefigurement! In the Eucharist we get a foretaste of what the Messianic banquet is really going to be like and in this meal – this coming together – this Communion – we get a glimpse of what the ultimate Messianic meal will be like with our brothers and sisters coming from all over the world and from all time!
Ah! Jesus is giving us a peak at how He will “CONTINUE” to feed and empower us this side of glory. It’s as we receive and are blessed by Him through the Eucharist that our heart and mind sets are ultimately transformed!
You see, in the Eucharist, Jesus is giving us a way to allow Him to hit our reset button every week!
May it be that you and I will come soon to His table truly ready to receive all of Him into all of us and as we do this our mind-set will be “re-set” upon Him – Amen and Amen.
Let’s Pray!