Untitled Sermon

Sermon Outline

Matthew 6:24-33

1. Illustration (Dad, inverted flight)

a. “We were at about 1000 to 1100 feet agl, right at between 135 and 140 knots. The aircraft was tracked really smooth; it flew better than anything I’d ever flown out of Corpus. I was looking down at the map when I felt the nose pitch down, and I got a little bit of a shudder. I looked up and saw that the airspeed had picked up. At that point, Bric, the PC, started pulling back on the cyclic. That’s the last time I looked at him because we started an abrupt yaw that made me grab onto the dash. My perception is that the nose pitched UP and continued to yaw really strongly. At this point, I knew things were bad; I didn’t think we were going to be able to recover. All of a sudden, the aircraft just snapped over; it felt like it went upside down. I was seeing ground through the greenhouse. Maps were flying everywhere in front of me. I heard Bric say “Oh, God!” a couple times and things got really frantic. I remember thinking, “Oh, God, this is bad if HE’s saying “Oh, God,” because Bric’s the best pilot I know. When we went upside down, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I went ahead and got on the controls. I was fishing around, but nothing would bite. It was just like the rotor system was unloaded. I couldn’t see anything inside the aircraft, because everything was shaking too much. There was lots of noise, lots of vibration. I was trying to obtain a ground reference point; I didn’t get one until I could see the ground through the windscreen right in front of me. It was just rushing up, and we were turning. At that point, I remember trying to put in full right pedal, and I felt a response. I don’t know if that was the response I felt or the billions of others I was doing. But something bit. Something took hold, and we got an input. I can remember pulling back aft left, and the aircraft started coming up. It was then that I realized that Bric was on the controls with me. He was still there. When we were upside down, I had no idea. When the aircraft finally recovered, we were about 100, 200 feet agl and screaming out of the sky. We were both pulling back on the cyclic, flaring the aircraft. We started getting to where we were flared a little too much, and we thought the bottom was going to drop out on us. We attempted to pull up on the thrust and got maybe an inch at the most. Thrust just wouldn’t go anywhere. So we started pushing it through. Bric said later that I was yelling out instructions; I don’t really remember that. I just remember pushing the stick down. We made a pretty good approach angle, and I remember touching down at what I’d estimate at 10 to 20 knots. It was really a relatively smooth touchdown. At that point, I released the controls, turned off the AFCS, and took both engines to stop. After that, I told the chief to check for fire on board. Then I looked at Bric; we got a little emotional and high-fived each other. We thought it was over. And that’s when the rotor blades started slamming into the fuselage. I knew that was a pretty bad thing because it could come through the companionway and chop up a crew chief or get Bric and me up in the cockpit. But, luckily, it slowed down and stopped. I don’t know how this thing righted itself other than God reached down and snatched this aircraft and turned it over. But it was like Bric and I had been joined at the hip at birth. We had worked together real well.”

b. FUP Question: How many of you try to pilot your life by yourself?

i. Make no mistake, we are all of us the pilots of our own lives, but did you know you were not meant to be flying alone?

1. In most aircraft, helicopters especially, a co-pilot is vitally necessary. In emergency situations, yes, this point becomes abundantly clear, but a pilot NEEDS the assistance of a co-pilot in order to complete flight checks, read instruments, assist with navigation, or even take over for the aircraft for a time. This is all just so the PC can get from point A to B! The PC wouldn’t have a hope of completing a mission on his own without the help of his PI! There’s just too much to do! How do you perform a covert, tactical insertion at night, flying nap of the earth in order to avoid radar detection while also navigating to ensure you’re in the right spot and monitoring the instrument panel to ensure there aren’t any technical problems? You need a co-pilot!

2. And in life, you NEED God as your co-pilot. Listen to what the flight engineer who survived the incident with my dad said, “At the hospital, I started thinking that this was really a good day. Because we should have been a big pile, just a smoking hole. Chinooks don’t go upside down and come back to life. They just don’t do that. It’s like God reached over and set us right side up again.”

3. Not only did the flight engineer make comments like this, but so did the mechanic! “All I’ve got to say is that those two guys were a team up there, and with their ability and their experience and their training or whatever and the grace of God got us out of that or else it would have killed all of us. I don’t know how they did it.”

4. Again, in life you NEED God as your co-pilot. There’s just too much to handle on your own.

c. Transition: “Let’s look at what God has to say to us through His word.”

2. Scripture: Matthew 6:24-33

a. Engagement Question: “What were you made for?”

i. What is your telos?

1. Telos: “An ultimate end.”

2. The Christian journal of theology defines Telos like this: “The supreme goal of man’s endeavor: ‘to draw nigh to God, being made like unto Him, in a pure mind, to remain in Him.”

ii. John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

1. Who is they?

a. God’s sheep, His people.

i. Who are His people?

i. Anyone who chooses to be.

a. Not through another religion! Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

iii. God’s telos for you is abundant life!

1. Make no mistake, life can only be found in Him.

3. Big Idea: GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SURVIVE. HE WANTS YOU TO THRIVE.

a. The Greek word for “money” here is μαμωνᾶ, meaning wealth or riches (where it is personified and opposed to God).

b. v. 24 Does this mean we should all just quit our jobs?

i. No, Jesus is saying don’t worship money! Don’t let the pursuit of money for its own sake be your telos! Your telos should be God!

1. Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”

a. A god is something you submit your life to, something you worship because it is greater than you, it is something you believe will get you the things you want in life if you do the right things for it.

b. Another name for this would be idol. This is about idolatry.

c. God wants YOU.

i. He made you and loves you,

i. Psalm 139:13-18 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

ii. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”

ii. Illustration: What if you could snap your fingers and force your spouse to love you? It would be hollow! God wants us to choose Him because He loves us and wants communion with us!

c. Again, it is not that money or wealth is bad, it’s a tool. The issue is, do you worship it? Hear the word of the Lord in Deuteronomy 8:11-19:

i. “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; 12 otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, 14 then your heart will become [d]proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of [e]slavery. 15 He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. 16 In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you [f]in the end. 17 Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ 18 But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.”

1. God is after your unadulterated, unbridled allegiance. Why? He made you! He loves you! He knows what is best for you! He is your LOVING Father. And His intentions toward you are good, but He won’t force you to come to Him.

4. BI2: GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SURVIVE. HE WANTS YOU TO THRIVE.

a. v. 25-30 It is not that these things don’t matter, but you shouldn’t order your life around them or chase after them with desperation.

i. Illustration: Telos of Hamster vs. Eagle

1. Isaiah 40:27-31

a. “Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

2. What is Jesus getting at here?

a. Again, God CARES for us, we are not just some hamster in a cage to amuse Him, we are not an afterthought. We are made to RULE. An eagle is the Lord of the skies, he is an apex predator, he rules over all that he sees.

b. And we are MORE VALUABLE to Him than the birds of the air.

i. In fact, in Genesis 1:28 the Bible says this about humanity, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

ii. Embedded in our Telos is lordship!

i. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8:16-17, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

ii. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:3 “Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

a. Oh, man…woman, do you even know what you are made for!

b. You were made to reign and to live with God forever. You were made to love Him.

c. Jesus was once asked what the greatest commandment in all the law was, to which He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

5. BI3: GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SURVIVE. HE WANTS YOU TO THRIVE.

a. v. 31-33

i. The kingdom is the King’s Domain.

1. How did this passage start? Serving God. God is your Creator and your King. If you are seeking the kingdom of God, you are seeking His Lordship over your life. Why, BECAUSE HE CARES FOR YOU. A good Father knows what is best for His children! How much more the one who created you?

ii. What is righteousness?

1. The Greek word is dikaiosunē, which means “the state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God.”

2. The apostle Paul writes in Romans 3:10-12 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

a. But you say, “Chaplain I do good.” The prophet Isaiah writes of these good deeds we do apart from God, here’s what he says about them. Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

i. The word polluted is a translation of the Hebrew word iddah, which literally means “the bodily fluids from a woman’s menstrual cycle.” In other words, these “righteous acts” are considered by God as repugnant as a soiled feminine hygiene product.

iii. So, how can we be righteous? I’m glad you asked,

1. Paul writes again in Romans 3:21-23 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

6. BI4: GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SURVIVE. HE WANTS YOU TO THRIVE.

a. So, my friends, the key to righteousness and to thriving is Christ Jesus.

b. What does it mean to thrive?

i. Webster: “To grow vigorously, to progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances.”

1. So, now that we know what it means, how do we thrive in this life?

a. Again v. 33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In short, we must be connected to our source!

b. Look at a lamp. It only has value so long as it is connected to its source. What value does a lamp add?

i. Light…

i. Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

ii. What happens to a lamp when it is unplugged? Or a candle when it is snuffed out? The fire, the energy, the ANIMUS is gone. We must be connected to our source.

7. The good news is, you can be connected to your source. The way we are connected to our source is through Christ alone. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And again, John 10:10 Jesus says, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly. So, my friends, God’s intention towards you is life! And life abundant. We can have that life through Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”