Sycamore Sermon, The One
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 9 viewsNotes
Transcript
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but I have a beard.
I do, yes, it’s been about 5 weeks now from when I started growing it
there’s a reason I have a beard. I recently returned from a work, fly fishing trip in Idaho, near the Montana border.
I was with a bunch of guys, we stayed in a cabin in a wooded area, it just felt right to have a beard.
Here’s a picture of a fish I caught, a 17 inch brown trout
Now, I’m home, and I still have the beard. My wife doesn’t like it, she’s made that clear,
I kept it because of my message today and I needed an opening.
Anyway, while at this, retreat, one of the other guys mentioned two words in the context of his therapy horses,
He was talking about how we see a horse and we think of all the things we want to do with the horse, ride it, walk or run etc.
The horse can be an object in our eyes to accomplish what we want.
But the horse has a mind of it’s own, it won’t just do what you want
You have to establish a relationship with it first, then over time you can ride it
So the two words are task vs connection
With a task the horse is an object, a means to an end, to get to do what you want him to do.
With connection, the objective is the relationship, connecting to the horse, and then together, you ride, run, etc.
Now for us, where do we fit, or how would we describe ourselves if we could only use those two words, are we task oriented or connection oriented?
What I’m about to talk about is not a new message, it’s not something you’ve never heard before.
But it has caused me to now look differently at what I know, or what I have known, to see it differently.
The Lord has really been speaking to me here
As we work through some passages of scripture, I want us together to see this idea of task vs connection.
An object to accomplish a task, or someone making connection, the objective is the relationship.
So, let’s start in Matthew chapter 3, we are going to look at a very familiar passage, but maybe we are going to see it differently
Matthew 3 verses 13-17, you can turn there or the verses will be on the screen.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
The baptism of Jesus
The three members of the Trinity are present, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
But I want us to take note of something, two things, the Spirit of God and the voice of God.
The Spirit descends and rests on Jesus, we can’t miss this.
The Spirit of God is now on Jesus, in Jesus, this little clip makes that clear.
In Luke, Jesus would quote Isaiah and say, “
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then the voice of God speaks, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Up until this point in Jesus’ life, He’s done no public ministry.
No tasks have been performed, why? Because the Spirit of the Lord was not yet on Him
The voice of the Father affirms Jesus identity, He’s the beloved Son, affirms His connection, and the Holy Spirit then rests on Jesus, a visible display of this connection.
This passage screams of connection, Jesus’s relationship to the Father and now whatever He does, it will be in the power of the Spirit.
The things Jesus will do are because of His connection to the Father, from His connection to the Father.
Jesus verbalized this Johns Gospel
I only do what I see my Father doing
I speak just as the Father taught me
The Father is in Me, they’re His words, He does works through Me
Connection
The indwelling Holy Spirit will now lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted and
it’s Jesus’ connection to His Father, His relationship with His Father that will allow Him to endure, to succeed.
He is then launched into public ministry
He teaches the Sermon on the Mount and we will look at the Beatitudes for a minute turn to Matthew 5 verses 3-12
These are the be attitudes, not the do attitudes,
These now speak to us of connection
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Blessed can mean happy or fortunate, but here it is more of a right standing with God because of who you are,
So, if you’re a Kingdom citizen you’ll Be like this,
Poor in Spirit, kingdom of Heaven
Mourn, comforted
hunger and thirst for righteousness, satisfied
Merciful,
pure in heart and you’ll see God,
a peacemaker called sons of God,
persecuted,
These describe Jesus,
be like Jesus, you’ll be like Jesus
The whole sermon as He continues is a contrast between two kingdoms, two identities, a contrast between task and connection
Be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, not a citizen of the kingdom of this world.
Be like this and not like that
Be connected to God, His Spirit so you can be a kingdom of God citizen
Don’t just do, , absent of connection
Be salt, be light, for that is what you are
Don’t be like them, don’t respond like them, don’t worry like them, don’t pray like them or give like them or fast like them,
Don’t practice your righteousness like them, just doing tasks
No, do what you do with the Father and for Your Father,
connection
He tells us to call God Father, that’s connection
God is not a task master, He’s our loving Father
How do you see Him?
He’s not asking us to do things for Him, He wants to do things with us, through us
Let’s jump ahead to chapter 7 verse 21
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
What is the accusation that Jesus levels against these people?
I don’t know you, we are not connected, we have no relationship
You are workers of lawlessness, you are just task doers,
you do things absent of connection to me
Sure they call Jesus Lord, but how do they define the word?
Lord can just mean master, they do tasks thinking it will impress the master
How do we see the word Lord?
Let’s move to chapter 8, we’ll spend some time here, and I’ll give you another way of seeing the word Lord.
We are going to see Jesus live out the kingdom of God, He’s taught on it, now He will demonstrate what it looks like to be connected to the Father, led and used by the Holy Spirit
When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
The first person, according to Matthew, that Jesus encounters when He comes down the mountain is a leper.
Leprosy was an incurable disease in Jesus’ time, but it also put that individual in a state of uncleanness, of separation from God.
Being unclean meant you could not come into the camp or temple, in the O.T., into the presence of God, you were disconnected
With other forms of uncleanness, there was a ceremonial washing, a period of time you had to wait out, tasks and time and then you could re-enter God’s presence.
Not so with leprosy, no ceremonial washing, no period of time, no task you could perform to be readmitted to the presence of God
Enter Jesus
This leper doesn’t say give me tasks to do to be clean, thats the rich young ruler.
The leper says, “Lord” there’s that word, Lord, “Lord, if you will, You can make me clean.” You can do, not me
Now what’s interesting here, and I just learned this.
One of the definitions of the word Lord is, “Supernatural Master of all.”
“Supernatural Master of all, You can make me clean, if you want to.”
What belief and understanding of who Jesus is
This man doesn’t just want a healing, he can go home after a healing, back to work after a healing
No, he want to go back to God, to be reconnected, to be cleansed.
This man represents all of humanity, unclean, not in right standing with God, with no way, nothing we can do to change it.
But God, right.
Jesus connects with this man physically, He touches him.
I will; be clean, He says.
You are now readmitted into the presence of God, in fact he already was in the presence of God.
Jesus then tells him to go do something, a task, but that comes after the connection has been established.
Do you see that? This is all about connection
Ok, now let’s look at verses 5-13 of chapter 8
When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
Now a centurion comes forward, a Roman army commander of at least 100 soldiers, a hated Roman
He too calls Jesus Lord, Supernatural Master of All, I have a servant who is paralyzed.
Before he can ask, Jesus volunteers to go with him and heal his servant.
Now what comes next is astonishing, even to Jesus, it says He, Jesus marveled at the man.
This centurion has an understanding of who Jesus is, unlike any in Israel.
If Jesus truly is the Supernatural Master of All, then all He has to do is speak and it will be done
I understand power and authority, I say come he comes, go he goes, how much more so with You Jesus
Jesus says that He hasn’t found any in all of Israel with such faith, such understanding, such belief, that is connection
Jesus then reveals a hard, shocking truth and we need to hear this as much as the Jews of Jesus’ day
It’s not by lineage, by birth, by proximity, that one enters the kingdom of heaven, but by belief, by connection.
Let’s look at one more passage in chapter 8, verses 23-27
Now before this passage, Jesus heals with a touch, casts out spirits with a word, and heals all who were sick.
The disciples are with Jesus, witnesses of these events, the cleansing of the leper, the interaction with the Roman centurion.
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
There’s a great storm on the sea, the disciples are afraid for their lives.
They wake Jesus with the words, “Save us Lord; we are perishing.”
They acknowledge He can save them, but their fear reveals something.
Even though they call Him Lord, is it Master or Supernatural Master of all?
It would seem that if they are calling on Him to save them,
but Jesus calls them out on their lack of belief, of faith, of understanding.
The centurion was praised, they are critiqued
They are so close to Jesus, in the boat with Jesus, and they don’t yet fully understand who Jesus is.
He is the Supernatural Master of All, not just a man.
They’ve seen that He can cleanse a leper, heal with a word, cast out demons, and calm the wind and the waves
But the disciples don’t see it yet, why?
Maybe they are too task oriented.
What do they repeatedly ask Jesus? Lord, when are you going to set up Your kingdom?
Jesus, You’re here to do something, when are You going to do it.
Even right up to His ascension, they are asking the same question.
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
They missed the connection because they were focused on the task.
Jesus was an object, a means to an end, the One to accomplish the great task.
The disciples are us, by the way
they are in the story to show us ourselves.
We don’t see it, we forget, we at times just want God to do for us
It takes desperate situations to move us back towards connection and to seeing, hoping in Who Jesus is.
Plus we live on this side of the Cross, we know the story
Back to connection, this is how Jesus responds to them.
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, just like He came upon Jesus, that’s connection
Then you will be, you will be my witnesses
The connection makes them something, a noun, a witness,
then because of the connection, because of who they are, then they will go and do, the verb, they will witness.
The doing comes after the being
The task comes after the connection
So when did they get it? In Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost
What they got was connected, they received the Holy Spirit
And because of this connection they go and turn the world upside down, the Bible tells us.
This is why Jesus said this in John 14
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Connection
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
Connection
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Connection
We too have this Spirit, if we have believed and trusted in Jesus
we too can have this connection,
we too can turn the world upside down.
So why aren’t we?
This is where I step down from the pulpit and am a congregant.
This message is what God has been preaching to me
I realized that my relationship with God had become task oriented
In my efforts to have time with God, to focus on my connection, it was the next task that was on the forefront of my mind
Now the things I was doing were for the Lord, reading, praying, worshipping, teaching, discipling, etc. but they had become tasks, things I had to get done.
I forgot to just be with the Lord, to truly connect
the Lord had become a means to an end, a help to accomplish.
How did I realize this?
Well along with the futility I was experiencing in those tasks, life was happening around me.
Jesus warns us of this in the Sermon on the Mount
He tells us that our anxiousness, our worry, our fear are because we are living in the kingdom of this world and not the kingdom of heaven
Indicators, revealers that we have become disconnected
I believe in the Lord, the Supernatural Master of All, I just wasn’t living in the reality of it.
My tasks had affected my connection
So, the events of my life, the things happening in the lives of those I love, they were taking me down.
I was folding, I was in despair, and this was God’s mercy to me.
There were mornings I would wake, after a worrisome night of not much sleep, and go into my office and get on the floor and cry, for hours.
You know what I wanted? Not tasks to do
I was desperate for my daddy, to sit in His lap, to cry on His chest,
To be connected to my Heavenly Father
I’ve been on a quest for connection, I even went and stayed at a monastery.
It has become my primary focus, not what I must do, but who I am and who I get to be with.
I am a beloved child of God and so are you
Our responsibility, according to John 15, is to focus on our connection to the vine, to fight for it, otherwise we wither and die.
I was withering and dying, I needed intimacy with the Father for life and rest for my soul
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Connection
So, how about you?
The question from the beginning
Are you task oriented or connection oriented, or somewhere in between?
I feel that most have at least a slight lean towards task, we are doers, give me a list and get it done
But God has given us real life examples of this for us to learn from and it’s not our jobs.
We are created to be relational, to be connected
Our friendships, they are connection, not task,
If I do things for my friends or they do things for me its because of our relationship, because we are connected
Our marriages, connection, two have become one.
What would our marriages look like if we all we had were a list of tasks to do?
Empty of connection.
No we have to maintain connection, fight to stay connected, date, have coffee together, pray together, be connected, otherwise our marriage will wither and die.
How about our families, our kids, this is a tough one.
How do your kids see you? As a task master or a connected parent?
Rules without relationship leads to rebellion
No, we want obedience, not just compliance.
Obedience comes from love, thats relationship, that’s connection.
This is what God desires for us
To have life and have it to the fullest as we are connected to Him.
So much so that He came
Jesus came to this unclean place so that we can know Him and the Father
He lived and died for us so we could be made right with God,
not to do a bunch of things for Him,
but to know Him so we could become like Him.
He gave us the Holy Spirit, our means of connection so that we too can say, I do the things my Father does, I say the things my Father has taught me to say.
Connection
So I don’t know what this looks like for you. I can’t tell you what to do, give you tasks, that would defeat this message.
For me, it took the crashing together of my two worlds to knock me down, to kick my butt, to reveal my desperation for connection
I have now put connection with the Father as my top priority and am trusting Him to help with the tasks
I wish this were true for me every day, I’m getting there, but this is the desire of my heart
This has forced me to examine my connections to this world, my attachments, and begin to detach, to disconnect, and reconnect with Him
to take my cares and concerns and give them to God, to trust Him, Lord help me to trust You.
I have not arrived, I am a work in progress, I still struggle, especially when my kids are struggling and I find my self giving them tasks, fix its, instead of pointing them to connection.
In fact this whole week I’ve had to fight for connection because the task of preaching was so heavy on my mind.
I’ve been thinking about it in the car, when I sleep, and as soon as I wake up.
But I now know this;
All of life is meant to draw us into deeper connection with the Father
I don’t know who you are, I don’t know where you are, but I know God’s desire for you is connection, relationship, for you to rest in Him, be still with Him, and know that He is God.
And as we are connected, He transforms us more and more into the likeness of His Son
This is who we are, beloved sons and daughters of God, representatives of Christ, witnesses of His glory.
From this identity, this connection, we then go and do, not for it and not before it, but from it and it’s all in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let me pray.
Father in Heaven, thank You, for sending Your Son, Thank You Jesus for coming, for living and dying for us, to save us, to free us from the kingdom of this world, so we can know the Father. Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to live within us, our connection to You and the Father, to lead us, teach us, transform us into Your Likeness, to empower us to be and do just like You and just like the disciples. Help us Lord, to stay connected, to focus and fight for our connection and to not drift back into being task oriented, especially in our relationship with You. Help us to not see You or use You as a means to an end, but that You are the end. Use us Lord in ways that You see fit, to help others connect with You.
It’s in the mighty and matchless name of our Supernatural Master of All, in the name of Jesus that I pray. Amen