The Unseen World - Part 2
Notes
Transcript
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Big Idea: A principled nudged is better than a temporary pleasure.
Tension:To do as you please is to ensure the loss of pleasure but the nudging of a principle will keep your life pointed in the right direction.
Pre-Sermon Introduction
Opening Joke
Ha-foke-bah in Hebrew
Ha-foke-bah in English
I should have seen that coming.
I was duped in Canada by a phony e-mail claiming to be the Canadian government wanting to draft money from my bank account for taxes. Looking back, I felt a nudge and thought “that don’t seem right” but I did it anyway.
I should have seen that coming. Many stories like that.
How many times in your life, when you look in the rear view mirror have you said “I should have seen that coming.” I should have paid attention to that nudge.
Here is what I also know. It is so much easier from the outside looking in at a person. It so much easier to say, “You should have seen that coming.”
To make it even more complicated there are sometimes that we get nudged, we know it is God and we still go in the opposite direction?
Here is the bad news: A good nudge by the right source at the right time does not guarantee a good response.
We are not like a computer.
We are not like a car.
We are not like a shovel.
We are far more complicated than that. Just like Peter could be nudged the right way one second and respond the right way, so he could be nudged the right way again and totally miss it, reject it and not even see it.
Here is the thing. It takes time, experience, and bumper guards. Yeah, that is right “bumper guards.”
You know what bumper guards are don’t you. They are the little rails they put up at the bowling the alley. They are designed for kids to boost their confidence when first learning how to bowl. They keep the ball in play and ensure it reaches the right destination: knocking down some pins.
All metaphors break down eventually and this one is no different. Nudges are the bumper rails of life and the one I am going to talk to you about today will stay up as long as you live.
These are the bumper rails of God’s principles. Here is the thing
In the Hebrew Bible these are called “edut” or testimonies. These are not laws that demand obedience but principles based upon reason
Principles are not laws but ignoring them could bring the law to your door.
Principles are not laws you can break, but if you don’t follow them, it can break you.
Example: Newton’s first law, really a principle: things at rest, stay at rest unless an external force acts upon them.
You can’t go to jail for not “obeying” it.
Saying you don’t believe it does not change the really of it.
You may like that is true for you: the alarm clock is the law of inertia at its worst.
Principles are not invented; they are discovered.
Isaac Newton did not “invent” the 3 principles of motion, he discovered them.
Principles explain the world; they apply the world around; they can be leveraged for our benefit; they are the bumper rails of life.
We use them with children all the time and they come from all sorts of places.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is a proverb. This proverb means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring.
The vulture eats between His meals and that’s the reason why. The proverbs means that if you don’t eat a good meal and just snack you will get sick.
Honey catches more flies than vinegar. This proverb encourages you to be sweet rather than sour when dealing with other people.
Life is like a box of chocolate. The principle reminds that you really can never know what will happen from day-to-day so take one day at a time, one season of life at a time.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.
Principles are discovered. You can talk about, you can discuss, but you don't invent them. You recognize them and then you get to make a decision. You can leverage a principle to your benefit or you can ignore a principle to your demise. Principles are like bumpers, they will push you back into play but how you respond to them determines the outcomes.
Principles are a path not a solution. When we get lost we don’t ask “siri” for a solution we ask for “directions.” Better guidance.
No instant solution or fix to being lost.
We get to where we should be the same way we got to where we should not be.
People go to pastors and counselors with problems they want to fix. Most people don’t have problems that can be fixed. Like the way you fix a car or fix a computer. Your more complicated than that.
They need directions to change not a fix.
A bowling ball can’t be fixed it can only have its direction changed.
When you have been nudged in the wrong direction by the wrong source what you need is to change directions not to be fixed.
Principles change the direction; they do not fix the problem.
The Holy Spirit uses principles to change the direction of your life.
The Holy Spirit will nudge you with principles from Nature just look at Proverbs. Prov 30:24
Four things on earth are small, yet they are exceedingly wise:
The Holy Spirit will nudge you along with the wise words of the One Shepherd.
Eccl 12:11
The words of the wise prod us to live well. They’re like nails hammered home, holding life together. They are given by God, the one Shepherd.
Let’s call these nudges, top-shelf nudges. These are the ones that trump everything else that is nudging on the scale from good to great, from evil to not that bad. They hold all of life together.
Illustrate: When we were growing out of our living room we needed to find a place to meet and quick. I was guided by a wise saying: Pro 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, the borrower is a slave to the lender.
I did not want to take out a loan for a small store front. I prayed and said God I will not be a slave to a lender. We were offered another facility but the terms were “slave” terms and I refused because the same principle. I kept saying God you don’t want us ruled over harshly, you don’t want us to be slaves. God opened the door for us here and gave us an amazing opportunity with a rent agreement that respected both parties. It did not make me feel like a slave at all. This principle drove me until God showed it to me.
We also know we must be good stewards of this opportunity so that God can open up for us the next opportunity, our own building.
I am equally standing on God’s principles in His word for the resources for the next part of Beth El Shalom’s adventure:
Genesis 12:1-4 the blessing on those who bless Abraham
Luke 6:38 - give, and it will be given to you
Apply: These bumper guards, guide posts are there in His Word and when the Spirit of the Lord nudges you with one, goads you with one, don’t you know He is impressing it on you because of the path that lies before you.
What passage are you letting nudge your prayer life?
What passage are you letting nudge your belief?
Your future, your family’s future.
What passage are you letting nudge out and abscise your doubts?
What passage are you letting change the direction of your life?
Let’s look at what the one true Shepherd had to say about this.
Yeshua teaches us that being nudged by His teachings will build a life that counts.
Matthew 7:24
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Now you don’t need a degree in Greek to know that Yeshua is saying, “doing matters more than hearing.”
I want you to notice something, Yeshua does not say that if you do his words it will fix your problems.
If you do His Words it will change the direction of your life.
Matthew 7:24
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
It’s not just the smart, talented, or resourced people, but the wise. Wise people understand what the unwise miss. Yeshua’s teachings will create the kind of life you really want.
For 40 days just apply the sermon on the mount rigorously.
Religious are non-religious it works because these are principles that are as true as 2+2.
Have you ever heard the saying: Game recognizes Game. When I met Seth’s baseball coach last season I recognized he was a much better ball player than I was with more technique and skill then I ever had. I knew it because I played the game. He also saw the skill in me and put me to work where I was best for the team. Game recognizes Game.
Matthew 7:24
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
If you are wise at all you will recognize the wisdom of Yeshua’s teachings.
To build something required process, time, habit, repetition, discipline, and even delayed gratification. You take Yeshua’s teaching about forgiving. It may take some time and work to get there but you keep building on it. You take his teaching on loving people who are different than you it takes time and work but you keep building. Take Yeshua’s teaching about the dangers of being super spiritual but not having any moral character and you build and grow.
The house is a metaphor for life. It represents your relationships, reputation, finances, and ethics.
This meant more to them then to us. We don’t build house ourselves. We don’t build on bedrock here in Texas, we pore cement to make bedrock. Or, if you have an older home you have peer and beams going down to stable ground.
To them It represented the hard or expensive way. There would be no immediate return on the labor. On the average day, it could have been seen as a waste of time and effort. Following the nudges of Yeshua’s teaching may not always be a quick fix. It’s a direction.
There is a counter to the principled approach of Yeshua’s teachings. I said this last week that the right nude from the right source at the right time can point your life in the right direction; contrarily, the wrong nudge from the wrong source at the right time can point your life in a direction you will live to regret. and it is the pleasure approach. Just like principles can nudge your life in the right direction so can expediency and ease nudge your life in the wrong direction.
We get introduced to the second charachter. Matthew 7:26
Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
The foolish person does not see how Yeshua’s words can get him where he wants to go right now. He does not recognize wisdom when it is standing right in front of him.
We get this thing really wrong. You see, we are use to seeing images of one house on a rock cliff and another house on beach sand. Wrong. Israel has loads of sand everywhere, not just the beaches. It is possible to build anywhere in Israel on sand. But don’t miss the point.
He is saying the “A foolish person will not be nudged into the hard work it takes to get to a solid foundation.”
Indelible Attitude
Impregnable Spirit
Irreversible Mind
The foolish person is nudged by only himself: I Got This, I Know Better, I got it under control.
I do not need to forgive; I need better friends.
I do not need to love my enemies; I need to avoid my enemies.
I do not need to be a peacemaker; I need people to do things my way.
I do not need to be merciful; I need payback.
I do not need to work out my marriage; I will get a new wife.
Matthew 7:26
Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
The foolish person lives like they are an electronic device. All I have to do is unplug myself, count to about 10, then I plug myself back in, and I reboot and I start over, and I'll be fixed and I'll be fine." To which we think, "That's not how life works, but that's how perhaps you're trying to live."
When everything falls apart “they go and find themselves” either in Colorado or California or buy a motor cycle or go shopping or get plastic surgery.. But isn’t amazing how this really does not fix or change anything.
Starting over does not work because you are still you..
Again this idea of building on sand is so far removed from us until you hear the news reports that a homebuilder put a home on sinkhole. That is what this is a sinkhole.
And everybody in Yeshua's audience is going, "This never works out, it's the quick way, it's the easy way, it's the immediate way." Two, three, four, days later, there's something to show for that construction site. And the assumption of the fool is this, the assumption for the fool is this.
That today's weather will be tomorrow's weather. Things are good today they will be good tomorrow. Nothing bad has happened so far.
That is how the fool thinks, short-termed vs. long-termed. He chooses the expedient nudges over the principled nudges.
Of course the weather changes: Matthew 7:27
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
Here is the thing you can’t fix this house. It is gone.
There is no fix for ignoring Yeshua’s principles.
The thing is about this person is rather than changing the direction of their life and following the nudges of Yeshua they will pray:
God fix this mess but he did not fix it.
God change him or her but he did not change them.
God make the results different this time.
Yeshau is saying “Come on, Come one” get real about this that is not how Heavenly Father works. He made the world to work this way.
Prov 8:22
“Adonai brought me forth, the first of His way, before His works of old.
Proverbs 8:34-36
Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from Adonai. But whoever fails to find me harms his life— all who hate me love death.”
Matthew 7:25
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and yet it did not fall, for its foundation had been built on the rock.
This is simple cause and effect, sowing and reaping. This is telling Google Maps get me to
Matthew 7:3 the beam in my own eye.
“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye?
Matthew 6:25 do not be anxious
“So I say to you, do not worry about your life—what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Matthew 6:24 one master and not two
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick by one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Matthew 6:7 -stop babbling and start asking, waiting and watching
And when you are praying, do not babble on and on like the pagans; for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
I love how the people respond to Yeshua Matthew 7:28-29
Now when Yeshua had finished these words, the crowds were astounded at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as their Torah scholars.
Wow, finally somebody who makes sense. Finally somebody who's saying some things that have handles. Finally somebody that's explaining how the world works and how God intersects and is involved in our world.
Wow, somebody who is willing to say this is not just a good idea that might work but this will work with guaranteed results.
Do you know what breaks my heart? Folks who choose to be nudged by impulsive desires or an expediency that is guaranteed not to get them where they intend to be.
The Credit Card Nudge
The Risky Loan Nudge
The Easy Degree or Professor Nudge
The Porn Nudge
The Easy Path to Promotion Nudge
Matthew 7:27
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
It’s not like driving somewhere. If you lose time, you show up late. No harm is done. You know in minutes. In your life, not so much. You can lose a lot of time. You can lose an entire season, your 20s or 30s. You’re not just late—you may miss it completely!
You can’t wish our way, talk our way, pray our way out of it.
Choose the nudges of the Wise and thrive or choose the expediency of Fools and loose.
You want to discern if the nudge you are getting is a good nudge or a bad nudge? Make this your criteria: is it a quick fix or is it a hard path that leads to a change in direction. God with the goads of the Wise One.
The best way to get nudged in the right direction is to pay attention to what is nudging you expediency or principle. In every area, Morally, financially, spiritually, academically, relationally, with important relationships, you have the potential to shape the life you really want. To build the life you really, really want and you can almost predict your future with it.
I have people through my life take quick and easy roads to getting risky loans for homes while Lauren and I plugged away and saved to put down the right down payment on a home we could afford. I graded students who took the expedient path of cheating and I graded students who took the hard path of diligence and study.
Example of expedient choice that could have gone badly but was prevented. I did not think you stupid fool, no, my heart broke and i wanted that person to point there life in the right direction. That is what our heavenly father wants.
Anna is a potential story.