Good morning and happy Saturday.
We had a humorous event happen at the church recently. It was on the morning that I was kicking off a brand-new sermon series. It was an exciting morning, and I had a lot of incredible material to share to launch the series. As I began that morning, I was ready, I was confident in what I had prepared, and I was eager to proclaim the Word of God. As the worship team wrapped up, I stepped up to the pulpit and began. For the first few minutes, I was sharing as much as I could and as much as the people could absorb (maybe more). And then it happened. The all too familiar sound of a metal travel mug hitting the back of a chair and then bouncing off of the floor. It might as well have been an M-80 or a lightning strike because it reverberated throughout the church. From my vantage point on the platform, I could see that many people heard it and looked in that direction. And that is when the fun really began. The man, realizing that he had created a spill rivaling the Exxon Valdez, immediately started trying to clean it up. Another man in the church, having observed the tragedy that was unfolding, immediately got up from the center section, raced out of the sanctuary as if it were on fire, and then soon returned with a wad of paper towels the size of a small sheep and a waste basket. He hurriedly came down the aisle like it was a Billy Graham Crusade and gave the supplies to the man cleaning up the mess. Who then proceeded to crawl around the floor on his hands and knees seeking to undo the damage of what was now a superfund clean-up site prior to EPA intervention. As I sought to share about the supremacy of Jesus Christ, I could observe that nearly 75% of the people were looking at the cleanup in aisle three. In my mind, I had two competing thoughts: I should just stop and wait for the circus to conclude, or I should press on because the Word of the Lord never returns void. I reasoned that most people in the modern era are good at doing more than one thing at a time. People can listen while seemingly doing other things. Or just because they are looking in your direction doesn’t mean they actually listening. Whatever the case, I pressed on, the spill was cleaned up, and we had a good service.
As I thought about this, I was reminded once again about how easily we are distracted. Even when we have every intention of worshipping the Lord, hearing from His Word, seeking to exalt Him. But then we see a squirrel, and off we go. A musician misses a note, a singer isn’t world-class, the power point is too slow, a mic feeds back, the preacher mispronounces a word (or, heaven forbid, doesn’t wear a tie), the temperature is too cold or too hot, a youth was making noise or was sleeping during service, etc. If we are not careful, we can allow any of these so-called distractions to derail our desire to Worship the One true God in that moment. Even when we are alone it happens. We start to read from the Bible or pray, and the next thing you know, our minds have drifted to something else, or we fall asleep. Sometimes days go by, and we are so distracted by everything else, that we somehow forget to allow God His rightful place as the most important in our lives.
So, what can we do about all of this? Is it possible to create an environment where there are no distractions? No, probably not here on this earth. What we can do, is to seek to not allow other things to crowd out our worship, our time focused on the Lord. It is interesting that in sports, most of the athletes are able to tune out all of the distractions so that they can play their game. How do they do that? Focus. They are focusing on what they must do. Could you imagine what it would be like if we became so focused on worshipping the Lord every day including during church services that we are no longer distracted by the little things?
The teaching of Jesus as found in Matthew 13 seem fitting for this topic.
1On that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the shore. 3 Then He told them many things in parables, saying: “Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on rocky ground, where there wasn’t much soil, and they sprang up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep. 6 But when the sun came up they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered. 7 Others fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them. 8 Still others fell on good ground and produced a crop: some 100, some 60, and some 30 times what was sown. 9 Anyone who has earsshould listen!”
10 Then the disciples came up and asked Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”11 He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. 12 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. 14 Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You will listen and listen, yet never understand; and you will look and look, yet never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn back—and I would cure them.
16 “But your eyes are blessed because they do see, and your ears because they do hear! 17 For I assure you: Many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them.
18 “You, then, listen to the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the wordabout the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. 20 And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 Yet he has no root in himself, but is short-lived. When pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the seductionof wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does bear fruit and yields: some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown.” (Matthew 13, HCSB)
From our neighborhoods to the nations,
Pastor Larry
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