Truly Listening Means Acting on God’s
Words
Text: Matthew 7: 21-29
Aldersgate
1) Evan Baxter heard God’s words to act on his faith in
spite of the detriment to his political career.
a) Recently elected to the U.S. Congress on a platform
of change,
b) Evan found his life turned upside down by his prayer
asking God to help him change the world
c)
Evan Baxter is the lead character in last year’s movie
“Even, Almighty”
d)
Show video
clip.
i)
Animals
following him two by two wherever he went
ii)
Outside as he arrives encounters two raccoon and two
skunk
iii) In his office when other senators came to visit him
(1) Two doves
(2) Two pigeons
(3) Two eagles
(4) Two bluebirds
(5) Two robins
(6) Two albatross
(a) Albatrosses
(b) Or albatri
iv) Rushing home in his car
(1) Confronted by two water buffalo on the street
(2) Two sheep in his car
(3) Two snakes and two spiders crawling around his face
and neck – that’s the worst
v)
When he finally arrives home God (played by Morgan
Freeman) appears again
(1) Evan finally believes that it this one who appears to
be a man is God
(2) And asks “Why me?”
(3) God reminded Evan that he had prayed for God to help
him fulfill his political campaign promise to change the world
2) Today our confirmands take
a leap of faith that will have significant consequences for their lives
a) Now their counter-cultural actions may not be the
same as Evan Baxter’s
i)
They may not be
asked to build an ark
ii)
They may not have animals following them wherever
they go
iii) But if global warming continues they might
b) It’s not easy to be a Christian when it means acting
on the values that Jesus promotes
i)
service in
opposition to self promotion
ii)
generosity in favor of acquisition
iii) care and conservation for a creation that humanity
has been over-using for personal gain
c)
Confirmation is not about an outward “holier than
though attitude” that puts others down
d) Confirmation is not about a certain predetermined set
of rules that you have to follow for the rest of your lives
e) Confirmation is about an inward transformation that
reflects a relationship with Jesus that is essential for salvation or truly
being happy in life and death
i)
We can go
through the motions with you, but if there is no inward transformation it will
not have an effect of the happiness in your life
(1) Do you remember when you were little and a parent
asked you to share a toy with a friend or sibling?
(a) Did you share it because you believed within your
heart that you would be happier sharing the toy?
(b) Or did you share because your parent wanted you to?
(2) Jesus wants you to share because you know within your
heart you will be better off.
(3) Deciding to be confirmed in the church is the beginning of believing that God’s way
will lead to a happier life
ii)
Stanley Hauerwas,
(1) He says “One of my favorite
epigrams is that Christians
are not nonviolent because
we believe our nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war, even though, of course, we want to make the world less
violent. But rather, Christians
are nonviolent in a world of war because we cannot imagine anything else as faithful followers of
Christ. (Homiletics,
(2) Our actions as Christians flow from the life and word
of Jesus
3) His words are words that require action
a) Even non-religious people understand that being a
Christian carries with it a change in behavior
i)
When I became a
pastor, some of my family did not know how to act around me
(1) They thought they could not swear
(2) They thought I would not let them smoke
(a) They were right in one sense because they have never
smoked in my home but that has to do with the my health and the health of my
children
(b) It had very little to do with my faith
ii)
Sometimes I’d rather not be a Christian because of
this
(1) I have to decide when I am away on vacation whether
or not to tell people that I am a pastor
(2) When I do their behavior changes around me
b) But Jesus’ words from this gospel lesson invite us to
ask
i)
“How are our
lives different because of Jesus? …
ii)
“Is a Christian any different from anyone else? (Lectionary Homiletics, June/July, 2008,
p. 8)
c)
C.S. Lewis, yes same as guy who wrote Narnia
Chronicles,
i)
described this
idea that Jesus’ words require action
(1) by talking about high-minded scientists who work
tirelessly for "mankind" in the abstract,
(2) but have no time for the physical needs of real
people
ii)
I suspect you know teachers as school who only want
to give you the information that you will need to pass the M-CASS tests and
others who also care about you as a person and helping you learn what you want
to know
iii) Who’s the better teacher?
iv) The same thing is true with church leaders
(1) Some want to guard the "true faith"
(2) Others want to keep up appearances
(3) Sometimes these desires interfere with their ability
to show respect, kindness, mercy and compassion to the real flesh-and-blood
people who surround us?
v)
But Jesus tells us that respect, kindness, and mercy
serve us better.
vi) Had God wanted to, God could have sent us a great
preacher
(1) who used words we could not understand
(2) and had all of faith systematically defined
vii) But God sent Jesus, instead.
(1) God could have given us clear guidelines and rules
and ways of adapting them to be "culturally relevant in the 21st
century."
(2) God sent Jesus, as flesh and blood.
4) God’s not looking for a change of behavior because
we’re supposed too, God wants you to want to change
a) My daughters used to say they’re sorry when they did
not clean their rooms or left a mess in the bathroom
i)
and after a few
years of sorrys, I began to ask them to change their
behavior in addition to saying they were sorry
ii)
now lets be clear I did not love them less when they
kept the same behavior
iii) but I still asked them to change because I loved them
b) Truly listening means acting on God’s words
i)
That’s the other
half of this lesson:
(1) Confirmation is not about having arrived at the end
of a journey where behavior no longer matters
(2) That would be neglecting the very benefits of the
grace and love that God has given to
you
ii)
This idea of … must have been an important for Jesus
message because he tells a parable in Matthew 21 at the end of this gospel that
teaches the same message.
(1) It’s about two
sons who are asked by their father to do something
(2) I’ve asked a few adults to help me out this morning to
demonstrate this story
(a) I noticed that _____ cut her finger earlier
(b) I’m giving ____ a band-aid “Would you take this over
and give it to _____
(c) Now I’m also giving _____ a band-aid “Will you take
this to ____ and give it to her/him?
(d) Who did what I asked them to?
c)
The “Evan, Almighty” movie adds an interesting
component to the Noah’s
i)
How many have
seen the movie?
ii)
What does God, played by Morgan Freeman, tell us
about the letters
iii) What do these letters stand for?
iv) Acts of random Kindness
v)
How do we change the world?
vi) Acts of random kindness
vii) Go and do likewise!
viii)Amen.