Trust the Story

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Sermon

Comedian Brian Regan told a series of jokes about his time playing baseball as a kid…primarily how little he got it. I could relate from my own time playing. I was the kid that got out in tball because I got hit in the head by a hit while between bases. Anyway...

He commented that one of the only nice things his coaches could say while he was playing, was after something he didn’t do.

When he didn’t swing…and the pitch was a ball.

What did the coaches say?

GOOD EYE

Would you believe that this expression is far older than baseball?

Funny enough, we went past it in our series over the summer, but I didn’t catch it (baseball humor there) Until some further study recently

I skimmed past it on the way to the next verse in a message that focused on anxiety and generosity back in July.

Jesus tells his disciples not to store up treasure on earth, but in heaven, where it endures, that leads into not worrying about what you eat drink or wear…but in the middle, is this:

Matthew 6:22-23 ““The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!”

weir statement…doesn’t seem to fit…unless you udnerstand

The words translated “if your eye is healthy” come from a common saying back in the day about having a “Good eye”.

The eyes are the way we see the world.

I’ve been wearing these glasses on and off for a couple years now.

The problem I have is that I CAN see without them…I have to work hard…occasionally at the grocery store I will have to use my phone to take a picture of ingredients so I can blow them up…I can get by...

But I struggle with one key part of wearing glasses.

The stuff that gets on them.

rain, then water spots, streaks, no amount of wiping with cloth seems to get rid of streaks.

They have that cool blue light filter, that eases strain while at a screen…but it also affects the way I see the world the rest of the time. Not like sunglasses…but enough that I notice.

But they weren’t talking about seeing with 20/20 vision. They were looking deeper.

Notice Jesus uses that phrase right in the middle of a conversation about? Generosity and Worry. He pits those two concepts against each other. If you see the world through worry…you won’t be generous.

How do we see the world? How does that then impact how we engage the world?

To reinforce the idea, it was recently pointed out that the very next part of the sermon on the mount, he talks about judging others and he jumps right back to the same idea.

Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?”

At the end of the day, both passages, the entire sermon on the mount, is about how we treat people

Are we generous and giving toward others?

financially, time, our judgement on their actions, words, and value?

if We are because we see the world a certain way.

If we aren’t…it’s because our eye is bad...

We are in a series on the life of Jesus, right now focusing (see what I did there) on how Jesus lived his life in a way that taught his disciples to be disciple makers.

This focus matters because in the same way I heard the marine instructor say, “the most important thing marines do is make marines”, the most important thing disciples do is make disciples: followers of Jesus who live and love like he did.

Everything else flows from that. Which is why becoming, and helping others become fully mature disciples of Jesus is so important!

Last week we talked about the need for relationship, and we saw how Jesus invested in his disciples, invested in the outsider, and built deep connections.

This week’s look is just as essential. Because Jesus goes to great lengths to show his disciples how to look at the world.

Bottom line, the reason I wear glasses is that my parents both have vision issues too, that showed up in their 40s.

The reason we see the world we do, is how from birth to now, we have inherited, and we have been trained to see it.

Let’s take that a step farther. The way you treat people, depends on the way you see the world, which is the way you have been trained to see it up until now.

This morning, you see the world through lenses shaped by your life, your parents, your trauma, your hurts, your blessings, your choices, and everything else.

Jesus’ point in the sermon on the mount was that if you see your material goods through a lens of worry, you will not be generous...

But if you see the world through the lens of trust, you will be free handed.

If you see the world through a lens of worry, you will judge others,

But if you see the world through God’s eyes, you will see their value

Each of Jesus’ disciples came with a way of seeing the world.

Today, I want to show you how Jesus INTENTIONALLY did some spiritual LASIK to help them see the world AS GOD INTENDED, so they would be able to be disciples with a good eye…

Church, if we are going to make disciples who make disciples who love God and people we have to make sure we’re seeing right and helping one another see right. Obedience to the gospel depends on THIS!

The problem is we are very quick to trust our eyes, not realizing they may be dark or carrying a plank.

I still remember my first experience with VR. I put the headset on and tried all the things…found the Netflix app and sat down on the couch to watch some Netflix in VR.

Basically, what you have is a theater with a giant screen. Cool decor, some plants, a nice coffee table…and you can watch a giant tv all right here. (gesture at face)

After a few minutes I leaned back on the couch and went to put my feet up…only to have them hit the ground.

MY EYES TOLD ME THERE WAS A COFFEE TABLE.

my eyes lied to me. They forgot I was wearing a screen on my face.

But I acted out of trust for my eyes. This morning, I want us to learn from Jesus how to:

Trust the Story

more than our eyes

Narration

The story starts in Genesis and runs through today. Jesus, John tells us, is the Word made flesh. In other words, Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets. He came to be the story we read in the rest of scripture.

I want to step outside the gospel narrative for a moment to see the story Jesus was living and what it teaches us. Don’t have the hours to summarize the whole Old Testament, but our patterns we learned in Genesis show us the essentials.

Genesis 1:31 “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.”

God saw that it was good, it was good, it was good, and after creating humanity, he steps back and says: It was very good indeed.

In that same text we also read he gave us all we needed for food, purpose, and an invitation to rule the world with him.

Good eye sees: God made a good world

God made a world sufficient for all our needs

God has and gives us enough

Then we see God do something strange for an unlimited, all powerful God

Genesis 2:2-3 “On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.”

God set a pattern of rest, that he knew when to stop.

Ok…just those two. God is enough, created enough, created it good, and invites us to rest. He is crazy about us.

If we scan forward through the Biblical story, we can see if people trusted the story, or their eyes.

At the temptation at the tree...

The tempter tempts the woman and the man with more knowledge and being like if they will eat from what God said no to.

They bite. What did they trust? The story or their eyes?

Right? Genesis 3 says, the woman SAW that the tree was good for food and delightful to LOOK at…OH WE could go so much deeper… Goodness, take time to know God’s word and see the story God is telling...

But let’s shotgun through a few more

Cain and Abel.

First brothers. Both make a sacrifice, God looks with favor on Abel’s, but not Cains…no reason given.

Cain gets angry…ultimately kills Abel to fix it. Eyes or Story?

What did his eyes say? God only has enough acceptance for one of us.

Abraham, old man, wife barren, nomad, God tells him his descendants will number like the stars and the land he walks will be his and all the world will be blessed because of him. and he believes.

Eyes or story?

There is a famine and he leaves the land to go to Egypt. Tells his wife to pretend to be his sister… eyes or story?

That had consequences

God calls Abraham to take his son to a mountain top to sacrifice him. Knowing God also promised to make a nation out of this same son. He goes… eyes or story?

If you have started a bible reading plan for the year that includes the OT, start asking that question.

What you will see is EVERY TIME the people of God hurt themselves, their neighbors, every sin, every betrayal of God, every self-centered act is predicated with them believing what they see, what they want, what feels needed…and a failure to believe the story God has been, and is telling.

Jesus lives out this story. He knows it backward and forward. What his disciples see is him face all the same choices we see through the Old Testament, except Jesus always trusts the story.

He offers them a:

Demonstration

I’m going to give a few examples. As we keep going through this series, I will point out other moments where we see him showing his disciples his trust of the story.

Here’s a favorite of mine:

Mark 4:35-37 “On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they left the crowd and took him along since he was in the boat. And other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.”

Pause there for a moment. Consider what the eyes were saying.

Fear. Death.

Worth noting, even for the fishermen, they rarely Crossed open bodies of water. The Jewish way of looking at the world was that open water like this was a symbol of chaos and death.

Even back in the creation story, the chaos before creation, was the sea.

But the eyes of the disciples saw something else.

Mark 4:38 “He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?””

Who said, let’s cross over? JESUS did. And now he’s? SLEEPING.

Did they trust their eyes or the story? And what did their eyes see? YOU DON’T CARE!

Put yourself back in childhood for a moment. Even if you had the best parents, were there times when you thought they didn’t care?

That rule that was keeping you from what you wanted

Forcing you to nap when you aren’t ti…red.

What did Jesus’ eyes see? His eyelids. How could he sleep?

Mark 4:39-40 “He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?””

Oh man…In the beginning, God spoke over chaotic waters and they became ordered…now Jesus...

But what is his focus as he turns to his disciples? WHY are you afraid? Do you still have no FAITH?

Paul picks up on this idea, and i can’t help but wonder if he was thinking about this moment when he said:

2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

WE TRUST THE STORY

One more example

Right after Jesus finishes the sermon on the mount

Matthew 8:1-2 “When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.””

Stop. What do the eyes see?

Danger. Leprosy was serious.

Separation from God. To touch a leper was become ceremonially unclean. You touch a leper and you’ve got a seven day waiting period before you can go into worship.

Disrespect. This guy was breaking all the rules. Lepers were to isolate themselves and keep away from clean people. They had to announce their presence to give the clean a chance to get away. He “came up” to Jesus and got before him.

We don’t get the disciples reaction. But we do get Jesus’.

Matthew 8:3 “Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Did Jesus trust his eyes or the story?

He touched him. Their eyes will wonder at this, but Jesus knew God’s heart for this man, and that he had the power to heal. So he ignored all the eyes around, and told God’s story by the way he lived.

You may never calm seas or heal lepers…but let me ask you this:

Does your life reflect trusting your eyes, or the story?

Do you panic when the waters get rough, or do you trust the one sleeping in the front?

Do you take risks to love those who need God’s care, or worry about how you might be seen?

The applications are forever on this item right here.

Most of how we treat people comes from this.

When we react in anger, impatience, when we demand people act the way we need them to be…we are trusting our eyes and our eyes are seeing through some dirty lenses...

Again, I’m not judging the lenses you see the world through. I’ve got my own. Life happened to you to teach you how to see...

What I’m saying is that Jesus came to show us that we can trust the story, far more than our eyes. and that will change us.

But Jesus didn’t just demonstrate trusting the story, he also gave his disciples an:

Invitation

to do the same.

In Matthew 10 he sends the 12 out to preach the good news of the kingdom, to heal, cast out demons, raise the dead...

Ok that is already trusting the story more than eyes, but here’s where I get suprised

Matthew 10:10-11 “Don’t take a traveling bag for the road, or an extra shirt, sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his food. When you enter any town or village, find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave.”

Jesus asks them to step away from him for a time, to do what he does…and to not plan for their needs.

If we were planning a mission trip to mexico or Canada what would we do?

Budget, plan, gather, pretty sensible.

And Jesus is not saying to always do it this way. But in this part of their training, he needs them to learn to trust the story.

As he’s commissioning, he’s also warning them they are going like sheep among wolves…but don’t pack a bag. Trust that God is going to meet the needs you have when you have them.

Here’s another:

From Mark’s account, shortly after sending the 12, they come back and they go to rest…but get interrupted by a crowd that wants to be around Jesus.

So he teaches them until it starts getting late.

The disciples point out that he should dismiss them so they can go get food. (I wonder if it was just that the disciples were hungry…)

Jesus throws out an amazing chance to trust the story.

Mark 6:37 ““You give them something to eat,” he responded. They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?””

You do it.

How do they respond? They trust their eyes…we’d need a years wages!

Mark 6:38 “He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” When they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.””

Jesus is now inviting them to trust the story against all the evidence. He includes them as active participants in a miracle.

Mark 6:39-42 “Then he instructed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. Everyone ate and was satisfied.”

Jesus doesn’t just multiply food. He invites his disciples to trust the story.

How dumb did they feel asking everyone to sit down to be fed?

Then he gives them each a tray of food to carry out…that will go, how far?

How do you act, knowing as you give out the last of the food on your tray, that there’s no more that you can be sure of for the next person in the line?

You and I know how entitled we can be. How do you feel (even if only internally) when you go to a restraunt and find out what you want is out?

That feeling in 2020 of going to costco and watching someone grab the last package of toilet paper…

Every time God lays before you a good thing you don’t feel like doing, or that feels impossible, he’s inviting you to join him in trusting the story.

He’s asking, will you trust me that I love you, and I love the other people involved, and that I am the God who brings order to chaos, who made this world good, who provides and cares, and even when I withhold what you think you need, I’ve giving you what will bring the most good?

Conclusion

No where does Jesus’ demonstration and invitation show up more clearly than in the cross.

How much do you have to trust the story to die? To willingly go to your death, because God said, “this is how we love people today.” This is how humanity is redeemed.

Though Jesus saw with his eyes and prayed for another way, in action, he trusted the story. He knew the story, he trusted the story, and because he did we can share that story…a story of hope and God’s love beyond measure.

We can share our story, of how God transformed us as we learned to trust his story more than our eyes. How we are set free from the trauma of the past and the fear of the future by the power of that story.

If you have never placed your trust in God’s story of salvation through Jesus…today is a great day.

We are going to have a prayer team up front following the service. They would love to pray with you and share that story.

Or if you need prayer for anything else in your life, please come and have them pray with you.

As the worship team comes back up, I want to close with a couple challenges.

Application

1. Where in your life do you struggle with trusting your eyes more than the story?

Maybe it’s in your finances. You can be wealthier than 90% of the world (which is pretty much all of us) and still struggle to believe God will provide if you live with generosity.

One more thing, one more level of security, one more…While there are so many who have needs God has equipped you to meet, if you’ll only trust the story.

Maybe it’s in relationships. Your eyes have been taught by life that people can’t be trusted, that they are out to hurt you, that you have to fix them, or so many other things…

And so you keep people at arms reach, maybe it’s until they do what you want, meet your expectations, or maybe you just leave them out there where you can be safe. While God’s story says we need to engage lovingly with people who will hurt us…and we’ll hurt them…but we’ll learn how to love and forgive like him in the process.

What is it for you? What causes you to act harshly, to assume the worst in people or situations? What causes you to react in ways you regret later?

Identify it. Write it down. Pick one. You’ll find more…but pick one.

Now this week, search God’s word. Ask God to point you to the truth of his story that can override that place where your eyes are dark, where the plank is in the way.

Talk to brothers and sisters who know God’s story and trust it and ask them to help you find that part of God’s story that can bring light.

Then embrace that story. Understand it, devour it, and then trust it.

When you’re tempted to put your feet on an imaginary coffee table, when you’re about to snap at someone, or worry again about that situation, stop and trust the story. Allow God’s word to remove the cataracts that are keeping you in the fog and trust the story.

SLIDE

Know the story, trust the story, and then share your story.

Someone else in YOUR LIFE NEEDS…NEEDS you to share your story. They need to know there’s another way to see life. They need to know there is hope. They need to know God’s love in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

I’m going to keep mentioning it. We’re doing a baptism service at Easter. And I am convinced that there are people in your lives who are supposed to be there. I believe many of you are being called to share your story, to introduce people to Jesus, and then get in the water with them to welcome them to the family of God.

That’s 11 Sunday’s away.

God’s story is so good. So much better than what we see. There is nothing else the church has to offer that is better than Jesus. His story changed ours…It changed everything. Let it change the world through you.

How you see, how you live, how you share.

Pray.