The Place

[Music] [Music] so having just landed from the overseas flight from the United States of America my sleeping schedule is totally upside down last night I was wide awake at midnight and put myself to bed forced myself to go to bed barely fell asleep and then for some reason I was wide awake this morning at 5:30 and probably in about 20 minutes right in the middle of this sermon I'll start to get sleepy right hopefully you won't start to get sleepy but this was not only the case this morning but was also the case yesterday morning and I was up bright and early up before the Sun and violet was sleeping away she seems to be almost impervious to jetlag but I don't have that gift it's not one of the spiritual gifts that I've been given so it takes me a long time to adjust and yesterday morning I woke up and I began to hear the cuckoo borrows calling and the WIPP Birds and so I thought you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna get up really early I'm gonna go out to the ocean I'm just gonna go out to the ocean I'm gonna watch the Sun Rise and it's gonna be great and so I quietly woke up by my definition quietly by Violetta's definition loud enough to wake the dead this is still a point of agreement that we have not yet arrived at in our marriage what constitutes loud and quiet because her loud is my quiet and vice versa we're still navigating that pray for us pray for us so I wake up quietly gather my things together get my Bible get my binoculars and get in the car and begin to drive down clothiers Creek Road to the Kappa Kappa Rita headlands and I was trying to decide where to go there's a number of places that I like to go sometimes I Drive out to the end of Fingal head and sit there out on the jetty but I don't know something about Fingal head I love it I definitely love it out there but I it just feels like cooling gatas staring at me right just across the Tweed River there there's all these apartments and high-rises and it doesn't it doesn't feel as naturey as I was hoping for and this particular morning so I said I'm gonna go to the Cabarita headland so I hiked to the top of the Cabarita headland beautiful ocean he could just begin to see it as the sky was beginning to turn there was a bit of cloud cover on the horizon so it wasn't just like a bright radiant ball rising out of the ocean and hiked to the top of Cabarita headland and then I was like you know what I'm not gonna sit here on this wooden platform those of you that have been up there you know there's a wooden platform because I knew that joggers and fitness people would be coming up I said go try to find just a little spot and so I began to sort of make my way forward and if you've been up there you can wind your way down and get out - there's a number of little rocky outcrops that you can find where you can feel like you are just totally alone right because the the shore is all behind you and the ocean is in front of you and I found this lovely little spot and I pulled out my Bible and I just had a sense I think I took a photo here let me turn this on there we go I I think I had just a strong sense that God was gonna speak to me this morning I don't know if you ever get that sense that you've woken up early and you sense that God has woken you up and you've got your Bible and you're ready to pray so I had this sense that this was gonna be a moment this was not gonna be just like you know quick devotional time that God was gonna speak to me in a meaningful and significant way here and I was ready to receive it frankly I was I was I felt like the new year kind of got away from me a little bit right I was busy preparing to go to America and didn't have I'm a big New Year guy I love the New Year I love making New Year's resolutions I keep almost none of them but I at least make them and so I'm a big New Year guy and here it was like the 10th or the 11th of January and and I'd kind of missed the New Year and I felt like this was gonna be my New Year mourning and so I sat there and watch the Sun begin to do its thing and the Dolphins were coming across and there weren't there were almost no waves and so there weren't a lot of surfers and it just felt sitting there like it was me and Jesus it was me and God and I opened up the Bible I don't recommend this as a systematic way of studying the Bible and I rarely do this this is not like a normal way that David astrick studies the Bible I tend to be a very systematic person very organized person when it comes to Bible study so I don't recommend you just open up the Bible and say God whatever I land on that's your word for me today you've probably heard the cute little thing where somebody tried to study the Bible that way and they opened up the Bible and it said Judas hung himself and they're like oh that's not what I was looking for so they closed the Bible and they open it up again and it said go thou and do likewise man this is just a terrible morning for a terrible morning devotions so they closed the Bible he said I'm gonna give this one more time they open it up and I said what thou doest do quickly right so it's not an advisable way to study the Bible but there have been times in my life where I have just felt under the impress of the Spirit that God was gonna speak to me wherever I landed because I mentioned here I'm a little late to the new year I didn't have like my reading plan set out I didn't I didn't yet know what the next sermon series was for the church and so I was kind of directionless right I just was there with Jesus Sun is rising I've got my Bible I've got my binoculars in case something fly exciting flies by earth at oftens go buy whatever it might be and so I just had this sense and I was like Lord I'm gonna open up my Bible here and I just want you to speak to me as a father I just want you to speak to me as my god I'm not this isn't I'm not looking for you to perform a magic trick here I'm not holding your feet to the fire for some kind of a sign I just there's so much in this Bible that would be so relevant to my situation right now I just totally trust that you're gonna do something really special here and so I just opened my Bible and just sort of flip through a few pages and then just stopped on this page okay and this was the verse that my eye fell on on the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea I was like thank you Lord you are so good right on the same day David went out of the house and he sat by the sea right so I I was thinking about this this morning when I that morning when I opened up the Bible and it was just like it was almost like a little miracle God just worked this little sign for me right I could have opened to any verse in the Bible and while I don't recommend this as a systematic or organized way to study the Bible it certainly was a moment where God by his tender spirit and his fatherly care just reached down and said David we're gonna have a conversation we're gonna we're gonna have a chat here I'm gonna minister to you and you're gonna pray and you you're gonna spend some time here and I spent the better part of the next two hours sitting on that rock just just reading absorbing and trying to hear God's message for me this morning and and I asked myself this question what does it take for God to get your attention right is that what it requires I mean on most mornings when I open my Bible I don't get anything like that I don't get this like cute little definitive idiosyncratic sign right some little mini miracle that doesn't typically happen but but this morning it did and I thought I wonder I wonder if that happened every morning if if that would be an easier way for God to get my attention how is it that God gets my attention is is his word enough to get my attention or do I need a little trick do I need God to pull a rabbit out of the Hat do I need a little dog-and-pony show in order for the word to mean a little more to matter a little more to get me out of bed in the morning and as I was reflecting on that the Spirit spoke to me and the spirit said this to me David what does it take for the phone to get your attention and the answer is precious little right this is all the phone needs did you get my attention how many people can relate to that you're in the midst of some task you're in the midst of something and and your phone is sitting there right minding its own business on the table or maybe it's in your pocket and you're you're absorbed in a task you're absorbed in something and then all of a sudden and instinctively again like a Pavlovian you don't think you know what right now I'm in the midst of something I'll check that later now occasionally you do but let's be honest for those of you their smartphone owners and smartphone users when that little boot or maybe for you it's not on vibrate mode maybe it's a ding maybe it's a chime maybe some little signal you you you just instinctively reach you just grab it right you just grabbed and I was reflecting and I think the Spirit of God was speaking to me and saying David that's the level of attentiveness that I want you to have to me when there's just the smallest hint the littlest whisper the smallest spiritual vibration that you you you don't second-guess that you just reach for it you reach for the word you reach for prayer you reach for me that there's this instinctive reaction right for me I don't know how it is for you but often it's it's a bit of an episode to get ready it's a bit of an episode to get up and get my Bible and drink and I've got to use the restroom and brush my teeth but almost nothing can interrupt my relationship with my phone and a boot I'm grabbing ding I'm grabbing but what if it was just as easy just as in reflexive and just as instinctual for God to get my attention the moment there was just a little whisper a little moment a little glimmer of opportunity to speak to God to hear from God to be with God that I just would reach just instinctively just in the moment what does it take for God to get your attention and as I was sitting there on the seashore and God had given me this little mini miracle with Matthew chapter 13 verse 1 it dawned on me that God is always available could somebody say Amen it's not like God was suddenly more available that morning because I woke up and because I prayed and because I had jet lag and I open up the Bible now now God is a little more available than he would otherwise be no actually what had happened was I was more available to the situation God had been there every day of my life and every day before I was ever born God is perfectly always totally available for just these kinds of interactions so the question is not God's availability to speak to minister to to give his fatherly care and compassion the question is am i available I'm available to my phone I'm available to my email I'm available to my Instagram I'm available to my social circle I'm available to a great many things am i available to God or is it just kind of one of those things that happens every now and then you know you get up early you suffering from jet lag and this is gonna be a moment right now me and Jesus now you might have heard this before and it is admittedly a little cliche and a little platitudinous but it's also true and that is that God does not need your ability as much as your availability what God is looking for is not so much what you bring to the table but that you come to the table at all now it doesn't have to be as dramatic as I've described this morning with the Sun rising and getting up early before that and and sitting down and having your binoculars and awaiting the arrival of the Dolphins and having a little mini miracle in the opening of the text doesn't have to be that it can just be that you make yourself available with regularity with consistency that that God is your father and you are available to him aware and conscious of the fact that he is always ever available to you Luke chapter 19 verses 3 to 5 is not a passage that we're going to look at today but this is the passage from which we get our sermon title our sermon title today is simply the place just the place and that is gonna come from a few different passages but but this one in particular I don't know why but years ago when I was reading the story of Zacchaeus and how he was to shorts and he couldn't see over the heads of the people and he ran and climbed up the sycamore tree a familiar story when I was reading to that story the definite article v jumped out at me and I want you to hear that today it's Luke chapter 19 beginning in verse 3 Zacchaeus sought to see Jesus who he was but he could not because of the crowd because he was of short stature so so Zacchaeus says man Jesus is there Jesus is available I'm gonna go see this guy Jesus this provocative young exciting rabbi so Zacchaeus ran ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree for he was going to pass that way Zacchaeus made a calculation he's okay I see where he's heading this way I know this town well there's no left's off of this street so if I climb up this tree right here Jesus will come by so what Zacchaeus done here is done has done here as he's made himself available he has positioned himself for an interaction that's what I did two mornings ago I positioned myself for an interaction and unsurprisingly God did not disappoint me Zacchaeus has positioned himself for an interaction he is he is oriented his life so that he's available when Jesus shows up I guess that's my question for you and me have we positioned our lives so that when Jesus shows up we're available because in fact Jesus is always able and willing to show up and here's the thee that I was speaking about verse five so Zacchaeus very next verse verse five says work with me here and when Jesus came to one of those next two words the place that's our sermon title this morning when Jesus came to the place not just any place not a place not the indefinite article but when Jesus came to the place the place of Zacchaeus availability Jesus was going to come to that place whether or not Zacchaeus is in the tree if that case is not in that tree Jesus is still going to walk by that tree this was the place made all the more important as the play because Zacchaeus had made himself available to Jesus and so it says when he had come to the place he looked up and saw him and he said to them I love this there's no indication previous in the text that Jesus knows Zacchaeus there's no there's no indication it doesn't mean that they hadn't met but there's no textual indication within Luke that they had met and and he looks up into the the tree and he says the same thing that he says to you and me except he doesn't say Zacchaeus he says Courtney right he looks up into that tree and he says Tim he looks at that rocky headland and he says Agnes he looks in that early morning bedroom and he says Carolyn he speaks our name friends I want you to know today the god of the universe knows your name and when you meet him at the place he makes himself available for your availability look at this when he came to the place he looked up and he saw him and he said Zacchaeus hey hurry up and come down for I'm gonna stay at your house tonight Jesus would have walked by that tree if the kiyose wasn't gonna be there but Zacchaeus positioned his life he organized he calculated and he made himself available in the place the place we're gonna come back to them all right in in Matthew chapter 13 verse 1 we see Jesus making himself available Matthew chapter 13 verse 1 on the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea that's the verse that jumped out at me there verse 2 and a great multitudes were gathered together to him so that he got into the boat and he sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore okay Jesus popularity is increasing for a variety of reasons that Matthew was already spelling out for us in his gospel but Jesus has made himself available on a shore it seemed like a reasonable place to be there was you know open air a bit of an amphitheater but so many people came to hear Jesus what it would look like if you were an external observer seeing this scene seeing the situation he would say wow these people are making themselves available to Jesus man these people are coming they want to hear the word of Jesus they want to hear the teachings of Jesus these people have made themselves available well of course the reason they've made themselves available to Jesus is that Jesus has first made himself available to them Jesus is there he's on the shore he is awaiting an encounter and so Jesus is there and the multitudes gathered together to him this is also a little platitudinous and slightly cliche but it's also absolutely true if it's important and this goes for anything in your life including but not limited to making that appointment at the place with Jesus if it's important you will make a way and if it's not important you will make an excuse right this is true of anything if if being fitter in 2018 if that's a goal of yours I want to be more fit I want to lose weights I want to increase my flexibility I want to increase my strength if that if that is on your docket for 2018 if you're like man that's that's if that's important to you if it's really important to you you'll figure it out you'll make away if it's somewhat important or marginally important or passingly important you will probably make an excuse Zacchaeus didn't just make oh he didn't he didn't just say well you know maybe I could meet Jesus at some other place now this was important it was important for his akia's to see Jesus so he made a way these people have come out and they've met with Jesus on the shore there they're making themselves available to him so this is how in light from Christ's object lessons speaking about the parable of the sower she says because of its simplicity the parable of the sower has not been valued as it should be from the natural seed cast into the soil very simple Christ desires to lead our minds to the gospel seed the sowing of which results in bringing us back to God now let's read this story here let's just read the parable of the sower you might be familiar with it we're actually not gonna dive too deep but we're gonna dive just deep enough to make the larger point that I want to make and that's coming up so verse 3 he then spoke many things to them in parables saying and in Matthew chapter 13 there's something like 7 parables ok so 7 parables this is the first of the seven behold a sower went out to sow look somebody went out to sow seed in an agrarian situation in an agrarian economy this would not have been unusual a guy went out to sow some seed this happened a lot probably most of the people to whom Jesus was speaking had at some point in their lives sowed seed if it was if it was time for for planting probably many of them had sowed seed that week or that month and it's not difficult to figure out what Jesus is saying here just remember the crowd is so big Jesus has made himself available on the beach and he thought that would be sufficient space but so many have come that he's gotten into a boat and now there's lots of people there so many people that Jesus is now in a boat and he says look behold a sower went forth to sow that's exactly what Jesus is doing here he is the sower and he's going to sow not literal seeds in literal soil he's going to sow his words in the hearing in the ears of those who are seemingly available they've showed up they are apparently available they are seemingly available I mean they are standing on the beach after all the Bible says there was a great multitude lots of people came out to hear the words of Jesus and so Jesus pushes back and he says look a sower went out to sow now they might have thought of a literal sower sowing literal seed in literal field and Jesus is going to use that analogy here but there's no question that Jesus is referring to himself he is about ready to cast his word cast his teachings cast his parables into the ears into the hearing into the consciousness of these crowded masses on the beach and he tells this story verse 4 and he showed some seed and some fell by the wayside and birds came and devoured those seeds and some fell on stony places where they didn't have a lot of Earth and immediately they sprang up because they did not have depth of Earth but when the Sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked them but others fell on good ground and yielded a crop some a hundredfold some sixty and some thirty he who has ears let him hear the sermon that I preached on this about a year ago on Matthew chapter 13 I was privileged to be able to preach on Matthew chapter 13 Jared had I think fourteen but I called that sermon what are those things on the side of your head right of course their ears ears are on the side of our head right and Jesus says if you have ears which I remember inviting all of us to check most of us seem to have ears Jesus says if you have ears I want you to hear this story this is a story about a guy who was absolutely gracious he was munificent he was generous apparently even a little wasteful with his seed distribution man he was just casting it everywhere I mean he's almost prodigal with the sowing of the seed and he just throws the seed and he says some lands by the wayside and some landed on some rocks some some stony places and some of those land it kind of among the thistles and the thorns but but some of those seeds landed on good soil right now this is Jesus telling his story he then goes on to say well the ones that fell by the wayside they were devoured by birds and the ones in the stony place that was problematic because there wasn't a lot of earth there and the ones that fell among the thorns well they got choked out because the the thistles in the and the weeds required the water and they got choked out they didn't survive but but the good soil he's like man the stuff that fell on the good soil produced fruit some produced thirty some sixty and some a hundredfold and so the people there just imagine yourself on that beach and you're hearing these words and you're thinking what kind of a Messiah is this what kind of a Messiah is this we're looking for a military Messiah we're looking for a messiah that's gonna rally the troops we're looking for a judas maccabees style messiah judas maccabees of course is the Jewish leader who in the second century BC led a significant Jewish revolt against the pagan overlords and secured a century of Jewish independence before Rome finally came along and so what judas maccabees had begun they're looking for somebody else to come and complete judas MacCabe has got us a good start but we're looking for somebody even stronger than the hammer that's what he was called to hammer we're we're looking for somebody stronger than that here's Jesus in a boat seated and he's like let me tell you a story about a sower and you can almost begin to feel at some level the impatience of the people not just the impatience of the people but as the text goes on even the impatience of the disciples now Jesus is available to the people there he is he's available but are they available to him and the answer is by external indication yes those people are there they're on the beach they're hearing his words but Jesus seems to be telling a parable specifically to point out that not everybody is as available as they appear right you're here hearing and a sower went forth to sow I'm sowing my seed I'm teaching my teachings I'm telling my stories I'm giving my parables but some of these parables are falling in stony ground and some of these teachings are falling among thorns and I know that it looks like man I'm going to be really popular look at all the masses of people lining up to see me but only some of these seeds are falling on good ground Jesus is available he's always available always has been always will be from this day forward for the rest of your life that's not the question what's in debate here what's under a scrutiny here is not God's availability to you or to me or to anyone else in the world the question is your availability to God are these people as available to God as they appear to be well I suppose the next question then Jesus is available to you are you available to him not episodically not occasionally not every now and then but but routinely in the same way that you're available to your phone in the same way that you are available to the things that occupy your attention maybe you're here and you're over 60 you're over 50 and you don't have a smartphone and you don't care about Instagram and you're not into Facebook but but what is the thing that has your whatever that thing is are you as available to God as you are to that thing or those things that's really the question and so Jesus tells the story that seems calculated to identifying to diagnose the actual unavailability of people now that kind of raises a question what does it mean to be available to God Psalm 139 says that you cannot flee from God's presence right the psalmist says if I ascend into heaven you are there if I make my bed in the grave you are there where shall I flee from your presence so it's kind of weird to talk about being available to God since God is ubiquitous since God is omnipresent he's available to every one of us right now so what does it mean to be available to God well it can't mean to be physically alive it must mean to be emotionally engaged mentally engaged it must mean to be tuned in to God it can't just be to be present and accounted for in the same way that some of you here today are present and accounted for but but you're not available to the message you're not available to the message because you're distracted you're not available to the message because you think man this guy is talking too long you're not available to the message because you didn't put your phone on airplane mode which should be called Church mode in my opinion right so so you're present and in an analogous way the same way that we are sometimes present to church many of us are present to God we're there we showed our face but were we available like were we the stony ground availability where we the thorny ground availability or were we the good soil availability what does it mean to be available to God well fortunately for us we don't have to wonder because Jesus is gonna tell us Jesus is actually going to tell us what this availability looks like you can fast-forward to verse 18 Matthew chapter 13 fast-forward to verse 18 Jesus is now going to explain the parable something he didn't usually do I should say didn't often do he would tell parables and often he would just let him hang out there with all of their mystery and all they're seeming ambiguity he just let him sort of sit out there so people would ruminate on them and stew on them but on some occasions Jesus actually said okay okay okay let me tell you what it means all right let me tell you what the stony ground means and what the thorny ground means and what the wayside means and what the good soil means so verse 18 therefore here the parable of the sower let me explain this to you guys when anyone hears the word of the kingdom but does not understand it does not what's the word everyone understand it that's gonna be a key idea here in fact that word understand comes up again and again and again in Matthew chapter 13 so Jesus says if somebody hears what I'm saying but does not understand it then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart this is he who received the seed by the way side the devouring birds the devouring birds are not literal birds that come and peck away the sermon from your mind or peck away the text from your mind or whatever it might be now is the devouring birds are that you didn't understand it you missed it you missed the point we're gonna get to that in just a second verse 20 but he who received the seed on the stony places he this is the one who hears the word and man he immediately receives it with joy that sounds like such good news verse 21 but he has no root in himself he endures only for a while and when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word immediately he stumbles so there's an impermanence to to the plants right it springs up quickly and there's a lot of joy but it doesn't endure persecution arises difficulty adversity arises and the plant fades right not much soil no depth no substance no solidity verse 22 now he who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word notice everybody hears who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful now that's important to recognize just quickly read verse 23 then I'll make my point but he who received the seed on the good ground is he who hears the word it's fascinating everybody hears and what Jesus means by that is everyone has functioning ears right like their auditory signals are being received and they are at some level being transmitted to the brain he's like this way side heard the stony places heard the thorns heard the soil heard so the difference between them is not a lack of hearing Jesus says the difference is a lack of understanding look I was 23 but he who received the seed on good ground is he who hears the word and and what understands it indeed he bears fruit and produces some one hundredfold some sixty in some 30 so the point of demarcation the point of differentiation is not up I'll just say it this way a shallow level of availability all the people standing there crowded on the shore they are available at some level right there's there's some sense in which they're available because Jesus says everybody heard they were all within earshot they could all they all heard the message but only one understood the message that they heard which raises the question why why did only some understand check check this out the wayside does not understand stony places no deep roots among thorns worldly cares and riches and the good soil understands the point that Jesus is making here is a point about understanding not just a point about hearing in terms of auditory vibrations coming into your you know inner ear and your cochlea and all of that is it something else going on here every one of us knows this my wife probably better than any person in this room that someone can be present and listening but not hearing are you with me is that true babe now she's been married to it for 18 years right present in terms of bodily present and even my ears are open but she'll be talking and all of a sudden she'll say did you hear a word I said I said yeah I heard everything you said and I'm technically telling the truth and she'll say what did I say and now I'm scrambling I'm like you said really important things right and sometimes I'll just take a guess I'll say you said we need to talk to Jabil and she's like yes exactly I'm like all I won the lottery I got luck usually I don't usually I'm like I'm sorry babe I was listening but she said you weren't paying attention so I was listening but I didn't have understanding she never does that by the way she's a perfect wife she never does that now that kind of raises the question if there's a lack of understanding whose fault is that whose fault is that well if there's a lack of understanding say educationally we would often look to the teacher we would say hey how come my child doesn't understand this right there's like this almost this onus of responsibility like did you teach this as well as you could have right well why is there a lack of understanding it almost seems like maybe Jesus bears some responsibility for the lack of understanding I mean the sower sowed the solar is the one that put the seat on the stony ground and among the thorns and on the wayside so so if there's not understanding is that Jesus fault well it's kind of interesting jump back now to verse 10 jump back to verse 10 verse 10 then the disciples came to him and said to him why do you speak to them in parables which was a fair question it was unexpected and frankly it was unwelcome this is not what the disciples were looking for it certainly isn't what the mixed multitude was looking for they were looking for a sword wheeling wielding card-carrying member of the military Messiah Club and so a you know an itinerant nomadic homeless quasi hippie rabbi walking around the Galilean countryside talking about sewers sowing seed is not what anybody's looking for right it is that doesn't fit so the disciples you almost sense their frustration right there's a mild frustration here there you kind of almost hear them in the subtext saying Jesus how are we ever gonna get this message out if you're speaking a language that no one understands that's like sort of implicit in the text Jesus no offense you're the Messiah we're the followers of Messiah but but why are you talking like this why are you talking in these strange enigmatic stories about sheep and weddings and yeast and nets and mustard seed and sewers what are you talking about why are you talking in parables let me translate that for you why aren't you being more clear there's not a person in this room who has not asked the very same question of God at some point in their life God why aren't you being clearer am I wrong or am i right some situation some circumstance some difficult eventualities happens and you're like God what are you doing this is not clear can't you be clearer which is frankly an indictment against God let's be honest it is Jobe had this indictment the psalmist often had this indictment and so why should we be surprised that the disciples here have the same indictment why are you speaking in parables can we turn the clarity volume up and the mystery volume down right many of us in this room have cried out for the very same thing God was that a sign was that a symbol was that an opportunity was that a Providence is that an open door could you just tell me what to do make it clearer which gets back to our question about well if there is lack of understanding whose fault is it implicit within the narrative you almost get this idea that that it's Jesus fault that some are on thorny ground and some are on stony ground and some are by the wayside verse 10 the disciples came to him and said why do you speak to them in parables translation why aren't you being clear it's God playing favorites here it kind of seems like it look at verse 10 look the verse 11 then he answered and said to them it has been given to you to know the mystery of the kingdom but to them it has not been given that is an unexpected answer let's be honest right the disciples are like why are you talking in parables and Jesus answer is well because to you it is given to understand and to them it's not given there's no other way to read this except is some sort of like quasi favoritism like I'm telling you but I don't want them to get it because I like you a little better I like you a little more but in fact that's not what's happening here it raises the question what is the difference here's that big crowd on the on the on the beach and there are twelve disciples scattered among the crowd to an external observer disciples blend in nicely just like they look like everybody else right all of these people are available to hear the words of Jesus all of these people are available to be followers of Jesus but Jesus tells a parable in which he says actually that's not true there's lots of people here available physically but they are not present to the situation you however Jesus says to his disciples you're in a different situation what separated the disciples from those that they looked frankly very similar to and the answer is that they were followers of Jesus because many observe but fewer follow when Jesus says to you it is given to understand the mysteries he's not saying I like you more or I like you better what he's saying is is you left those boats you left the tax collectors table you followed me when I gave the invitation follow me and I will make you fishers of men follow me when I gave the invitation you came all of these people here on the shore are not largely interested in following some of them are but most them are observers many observe but many fewer actually follow many are interested but many fewer are invested when Jesus says to you it is given to know the mysteries he's not playing favorites what he's saying is is you're gonna understand more than the casual observer who shows up for a moment to hear a story from this vaca t'v young rabbi similarly those of you that just show up to church hoping to hear a good sermon from that fast-talking long preaching American preacher you might get blessed but you might not he might leave and say that was a terrible sermon man I was hoping for something much better than that but I'll tell you this if you show up as a follower of Jesus if you show up passionate about his kingdom passionate about the word if you show up not just physically present but present to the spirit you will absolutely leave blessed even if the preacher just stands up in sneezes and coughs because you're not just an observer you're present to the situation you're open to the Spirit you're not stony ground you're not thorny ground you're not the wayside you are not just present physically you are present to the situation spiritually you are available look at this John chapter 7 verse 17 jesus said if anyone wills to do his will he shall know concerning the doctrine whether it is from God whether I speak on my own authority this is fascinating what Jesus says here because he reverses the order that we typically would understand so I'll just give you a little different translation here more modern translation it's easier to understand Jesus says if you really want to obey God you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me this is a reversal of the way that we typically understand this what Jesus says is if you want to know the truth start obeying he doesn't say start obeying when you know the truth because and these three words can change your life understanding follows obedience those three words right there change your whole life understanding follows obedience not the other way around this is why the one that understood the good ground was differentiate was was different and separate from the others who did not understand this is why Jesus says to you it's given to understand because you though not perfectly you have chosen to follow you are in stuff it's possible for you right now you are obedient to the call and in responding to the call you have made yourself available to me and so you're gonna hear things that others are not gonna hear even though they're gonna hear the very same verbiage they're gonna sit in the very same room they're gonna be exposed to the very same presentation but you are gonna hear something that others may not because you have obeyed and understanding and insight and perspicacity will follow obedience not the other way around this is also true ability follows availability I tell you one of the most frustrating things about pastoring this church and I don't know if this is something that is idiosyncratically kingscliff or if this is an Australian thing because this is the only church I've ever pastored but but this is the this is the response that nominating nominating committee gets again and again and again and again if you're calling and asking for someone to lead out in something so you call up you have the conversation and you have prayer and the response not always but a disproportionately high percentage of the time is I would love to be involved but I won't lead I'd love to be involved but I won't lead I won't lead I won't lead I won't lead I won't lead and I don't I don't know if is it a timidity is it the tall poppy thing is it just general busy I don't know I'm it would be too difficult to diagnose why it is that 300 people are 350 people are suddenly not available to lead something that they are available to participate in but I sometimes wonder if it's that people feel under under-qualified they just like I'm not a leader like how could I ever lead I would have to be trained I would have to be equipped I would there's a lot of stuff that would happen to happen it over in order for me to be a leader but I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that in fact if you make yourself available to God in some capacity that stretches you God will make up the difference God will make up the difference if you make yourself available to God the ability will follow the availability the understanding will follow the obedience Matthew chapter 13 verse 12 this is the verse that sounds like favoritism for whoever has to him more will be given and who and he will have abundance but whoever does not have what he has will be taken away from him man this sounds terrible this is just another one of those weird things that Jesus said the last shall be first and the first shall be last all right look at this whoever has man we're gonna give more to the guy that has it and he's gonna have a lot and the guy who doesn't have any even a little bit that he has is gonna be taken away this is frankly the sounds like crazy talk until you ask this question whoever has what understanding so we're just going to do something really clever here we're just gonna drop the word understanding in in all of the places where it's implied and we see that what Jesus is saying is not prescriptively I'm playing favorites but what he's describing is the way reality works look at this for whoever has understanding to him more understanding will be given and he will have abundant understanding but whoever does not have understanding even the little understanding that he has will be taken away from him this makes such good sense if you just think about a child who's learning and going through the process second grade third grade fourth grade fifth grade sixth grade right and we know that they're gonna be reading books in the tenth and eleventh grade that will require that they learn to read back here in these earlier grades okay but if they have a little understanding here that little understanding of how a a a cat ran ran true through through through the house a cat ran through the house okay exactly so you have a little understanding but cumulatively that little understanding becomes a great understanding when you get down to this end but if you don't have a little understanding if you look at those symbols and you don't know it whether it's math or English or science and then you come down here the little bit that sort of made sense back there makes no sense now so to what Jesus Jesus is like look if you obey if you make yourself available if you follow your understanding will increase those that make themselves available to me those that follow those that obey man your understanding is gonna be you're gonna so much understanding and those that do not do that the little bit of a I'm gonna say things that are gonna be completely mystifying to them and they're gonna tune me out but a little bit of understanding that they could had when they were standing on that crowded seashore will be taken away from them not because Jesus plucks it away but because they're like nah they're available but they're not fully available because the understanding that Jesus is talking about here is not about intelligence Jesus is not divvying up IQ here well you're gonna be like a 97 you'll be a 123 I'm gonna give you a 154 I'll give you a 111 and you get a 33 right right Jesus is not giving up IQ here because because the understanding that Jesus is is inviting us to have the understanding that Jesus is describing in the parable of the sower it's not a level of intelligence hey you're gonna be a little smarter you're gonna be not quite as smart and the person that's really no it's about availability and obedience understanding increases as availability increases and understanding increases as obedience increases obedience obedience to the invitation of Jesus to follow me obedience to the invitation of Jesus to come unto me all ye the labor actual obedience to an actual Savior brings about an actual increase in understanding a mere familiarity with a guy named Jesus of Nazareth a casual episodic flirtatious relationship with Jesus results in zero understanding the little understanding that you have will be taken I love it I love saying it this way to understand you must first stand under do you want to understand the mysteries of God you want to understand the mysteries of his word you must first stand under the truth of God stand under the fatherly care of God and when you stand under by availability and by obedience then you will begin to understand things that others who do not stand under will never understand Jesus then does this he quotes Isaiah 6 verse 13 of Matthew 13 therefore I speak to them in parables because seeing they don't see yea they saw me on the seashore but they didn't see and hearing they don't hear yea they heard me but they didn't because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand and then Jesus says you know what this is these people that are all standing on the seashore he says this is actually a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah and he quotes here from Isaiah 6 hearing you will hear this is Isaiah hearing you will hear but will not understand and seeing you will see and not perceive or understand for the hearts of this people have grown dull in fact you notice here verse 15 there's a chiasm I put it up here on the screen for you notice how notice how this goes okay it's a chiasm ABC CBA right it's a poetic structure so watch this the hearts of this people have grown dull their ears are hard of hearing their eyes they have closed right hearts ears eyes now watch what he goes unless they should see with their eyes hear with their ears lest they should understand with their hearts and turn this is classic chiastic parallelism a b c c b a he's like there's a problem here the problem is they're hearing but they're not hearing they're seeing but they're not seeing their heart is open but they're not understanding that this is the coolest thing this is the punchline of the whole sermon so if you've survived at this point you're about ready to get the big payoff the temptation in hearing a sermon like this would be like man the pastor's right i need to get my act together i need to i need to spend more time in scripture and less time watching movies and playing board games and being you know stuck on my phone he's right he's right you know this is a new year new me i need to yeah i'm gonna turn up the volume on my spirituality i'm gonna turn down the volume on my worldliness and I'm gonna reorient my priorities here that the pastor's right there's a great point God's been available me I've not been available to him and so my response is I'm gonna I'm gonna change that but what's fascinating is what Isaiah what God says through Isaiah and what he says here what he says is return and be healed pealed yeah you need to be healed what do you mean I need to be healed yeah you're sick but the word in the Greek I checked it again this morning it it's it's like to be healed from a disease you have a disease and your disease is not just that you have a lack of resolution or that you're lazy or that you're a procrastinator you have a much bigger disease you have a really big disease and what he says is you got a problem with your ears your eyes in your heart you got heart disease you got ear disease you got eye disease and you don't need more resolve what you need he says is to return and be healed you you need the touch of the hand of God you need to return how I love that return means to come back to that place you used to occupy you you can't return to a place you never work you can only return to a place you have formerly been and so what Isaiah says and what Jesus says here he says that that they should they should turn and I would heal them when I sat there on the end of that headland that Cabarita the Spirit of God spoke to me as I was reading through the parable of the sower and I was like I didn't have I had no intention to preach this I was just reading I was just reading devotional I was just spending this thoughtful moment with Jesus I just was making myself available to him and you know what the Spirit of God spoke to me the Spirit of God said to me David you need to return and be healed David you've got an ear problem David you've got an eye problem and David you've got a heart problem you need to return to me and be healed to which I responded and I said I need to return where but where do I need to return to because because I think I've been with you the whole time Jesus I I was baptized June 6 1996 and and I've been with you the whole time in the Spirit of God so to me and said now you need to return you need to return to the place just like Zacchaeus came to the place fascinatingly in Isaiah 6 which we have no time to develop Isaiah came to the place he made himself available at the place and and when God asked the question in Isaiah 6 who shall we send and who will go for us Isaiah says Here I am Here I am I'm available send me this is the famous passage that we have in the Old Testament here my lord send me Isaiah 6 because he went to that place well in the case of Isaiah it was the sanctuary and the case of Zacchaeus it was the sycamore tree and in the case of the disciples it was wherever Jesus went and in my case it was the cavalry to Hedlund it was the place where you come and realize that you don't just need to get your act together you need to be healed and some of you used to go to the place your first converted freshly converted on fire there was this primitiveness to your walk with Jesus there was this like simplicity to your walk with Jesus man look at this Ellen White from ministry of healing when temptations assail you when care perplexity and darkness seemed to surround your soul go to the place where you last saw the light go to the place go to the place what place Jesus go to the sycamore tree go to the Cabarita headland go to the beach go to the sanctuary go to your closet you got to get back to the place because you need to return and be healed go to the place where you last saw the light if you're surrounded by darkness where was the place that you last saw the light rest in Christ's love and under his protecting care when sin struggles for the mastery in the heart when guilt oppresses the soul and burdens the conscience when unbelief clouds the my remember that Christ's grace is sufficient to subdue sin and banish the darkness entering into communion with the Savior we enter the region of peace communion you can have communion with God at the tippy end of the Cabarita headland you can have communion with God in a sycamore tree you can have communion with God wherever where's the place where's the place that in your early conversion in your early experience man you had that place it was you and Jesus you weren't just available to be count for here here present now you were available and not for God to perform some kind of a magic trick some little sign you were available you were available for obedience you were available to God it's man things have gotten harder and now they've not gotten harder you've just become less available go back to the place where you last saw the light she says the place of availability and here's where the appeal is here's what the alter call is I'm gonna save myself the humiliation of describing in detail why and how I need to return I'll spare me and I'll spare you but suffice it to say when I made myself available to God in that moment maybe it was the jet lag in combination with the little mini miracle in combination with the Rising Sun and the swimming dolphins and all of that but the Spirit of God spoke to me and said dude I got some stuff I need to talk to you about this isn't gonna be a quickie this isn't gonna be an open up the Bible that's a good idea close the Bible and I'm off to the races I'm Pastor David this is the Spirit of God saying David we're gonna have a conversation here we're in have a conversation about your availability I could ask you some questions David of course God's not speaking to me audibly he doesn't have to he has a much more effective way of speaking he just speaks right to my heart he's got a direct he got a direct line of communication and he starts revealing areas Station's habits in my life where my availability has gone down and I'm less available to God than I was shortly after my conversion and and Jesus says to me David I need you to come back to that place of availability I need you to come back to that place where you're not just here fo Sadiq Lee I need you to be in the in that place that place maybe those great times we had remember that time we had we haven't had one of those times and what I need you to come back to that place David a sycamore tree the headland the bedroom closet the beach walk the mountaintop I need I need I need you to come back to that place I need you to come back to the place of obedience David not the place of you'll think about it and get back to me I just need you to come back to that place of where when you hear you do and you figure out the understanding later and you to come back to that place not where understanding obedience follows understanding but to the place where understanding follows obedience I need you to come right back to that place where I say something and you don't question it I just say it and you say you're my god you're my father you love me you're my king and yes yes I'm gonna do that and David you know you and I both know David that when you were in that place of immediate a beat obedience your life was better you know that yeah you're right father yeah you're right Jesus David Jesus said to me David I need you to come back to that place of understanding how are you gonna get to the place of understanding you're gonna give the place of understanding by being in the place of availability by being in the place of obedience I need you to come back to the place of peace I tell you man religion cannot bring peace but Jesus can let's pray together let's pray as a community let's pray as people in need of healing father in heaven [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

Views: 7,104

Rating: 4.9354839 out of 5

Keywords: David Asscherick, Kingscliff church

Id: WcvjKYzUObA

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Thu May 24 2018