Parables are these beautiful, radical, earth changing ways of
teachings. Jesus doesn't just teach
parables, Jesus is a parable. It's good to see you guys.
I missed you a lot these last couple weeks.
It's so good to be back with you guys and back in front of you
guys. Like like Terra said, we just
welcomed our third kid and into the into the world just a few
weeks ago. So little Jack is is right here
And so you guys were kind enough to give me 3-4 weeks to do kind
of a little bit of a maternity sabbatical or sabbatical.
So that was awesome and I'm so grateful for that to get rest
these last couple weeks I kind of visited other churches and it
was great because I got to visit some of the I think of the best
and most faithful churches in the Des Moines area and and that
was awesome. And as awesome as it is to go
visit other churches and go worship and study at other
churches, it's a good feeling to be like man, this church is
awesome but like I miss. I miss Frontier.
And so it's really good to be back here.
Our kids in particular, I mean they're, they super missed
Frontier. There was a week, a couple weeks
ago where I was like, OK guys, we're all going to jump in the
car and we're going to go to this church all the way over
here. It's a different church.
It's not our church. It's going to be great.
They love Jesus too. And our kids were like, hey,
that's great. Is Asha going to be there and
Joseph, Levi and Ezra and Zion and Malachi and Reese and Ray?
Are they, are they going to come with us?
I was like, no, they're part of our church.
And Russell was like, what's the point?
And so they really missed it. And they're really, really,
really happy to be back in these last couple weeks.
It just really does kind of remind me of the special
relationship that I feel like you and me have.
I've got other buddies who are pastors.
We're part of other networks. So I spent a lot of time talking
to other pastors and I hear about their relationship with
the church. And I don't think it's a rare
thing for churches to sometimes treat their pastors or forget
that their pastors are also husbands and and fathers and
first and foremost lovers of of Jesus.
Sometimes other churches just kind of have the tendency to use
their pastor for for ministry. And I don't feel like you and me
really have that relationship. We feel celebrated by taking
three or four weeks off. We feel like you're in our
corner. And so it feels really great to
be a part of a church that I get to lead.
But you also know that first and foremost, I'm a child of God.
That that means a lot. You, you see me as a human being
with, with a wife and with kids and and with a mustache.
Now I got to be honest with you, I when I grew, when I shaved the
mustache. I'm just kind of doing that as a
joke a couple weeks ago, because I had three or four weeks.
I never get three or four weeks off.
So I was like, what am I not going to do?
Like not shave a mustache for these three weeks?
So I shaved it off just for a a joke.
And then the reviews started pouring in from you guys.
Lots of negative ones. I started to think, oh, this is
actually kind of fun. In fact, I wrote some of them
down. Here's what you guys said.
You look like the poor man's Justin Spade.
Yeah, right. I think that was it, too.
You look like a hipster Magnum Pi.
That one was actually Tracy Self.
So I think she was actually just being nice to me.
So that one, actually, that one kind of hit home quite a bit.
You look like a guy who gets excited about buying a minivan.
True. No, he This one's a little
insider. I'm going to do it anyways.
You look like a young wannabe Paul Tripp.
Apparently that one resonated. Here's the one that really hurt
my feelings, though, and this is what actually what almost caused
me to shave the mustache off and just get rid of it.
Someone in our church, I think it was, Zach said to me.
Oh, so you're trying to be like Nick Powell.
I was like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna shave it off right now.
I think that the toughest thing has been the response from my
from my own family. Again, really, really mixed
reviews. I I've seen the videos.
I've had like a beard for like 10 years.
So if you don't know me, that's it was a big deal.
I've seen, like the unveiling videos, you know, when dads
shave off their beards and they see their kids and their kids
cry, you know, And I was like, oh, I want to do something like
that. And so I didn't tell anybody.
I shaved it all off besides a mustache.
And I go out and look at my kids, and I think this is what
hurt most. They looked at me and they go,
can you get us a snack? It's like the beard meant
nothing to him. You know, Chloe likes it.
That's all that matters my my immediate family.
It's kind of a divisive subject. My sister said.
What is growing on your face? And again, it was all just a
joke until I started talking to my father about it.
And he had a mustache like all throughout the 80s and like all
throughout the 90s, like he had one of those, like thick
Caterpillar American mustaches. And I was just kind of like, I
was just going to complain to him being like, Dad, I feel like
I'd keep the mustache if it were like, if it were like yours, you
know, like a thick, Caterpillar American mustache.
I feel like I'm stuck with, like, this thin, wispy European
mustache, you know? And I was just kind of joking,
but my dad just kind of listened to me complain.
And then he said, son, be patient.
I was like, so we're doing this now.
We're doing this. Maybe.
I know it's hard when you're an organizational leader.
It's hard because, like, it's not just my mustache, You know,
I get up here because. Yeah, that's right.
Right. When you bring your friends to
church, they have to listen to a guy with a mustache breach to
them. So I get it's kind of hard.
It's not just my mustache. It's our mustache.
I'm probably going to shave it today.
I I do have. Let's get let's get the word of
God in front of us. If you got a Bible, go ahead and
stand. If you don't have a Bible,
there's one right in front of you.
We are in Mark, chapter 4, verses 21 through 25.
I'll get those on the screen. Let's get our minds and hearts
in front of the word of God and let's let this get into our
souls and transform us. Jesus is in in the middle of a
series. He shotgunning through parables,
teaching about what life with him is like and life in the
Kingdom of God. And I think that what Jesus
senses right now is frustration from his disciples who probably
wish that he would just speak and teach a little bit more
clearly. Verse 21 And Jesus said to them
is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed
and not on a stand. For nothing is hidden except to
be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come
to light. So if anyone has ears to hear,
let him hear verse 24 the 2nd parable.
And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear with
the measure you use. It will be measured to you, and
still more will be added to you. For to the one who has more will
be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will
be taken away. Heavenly Father, I pray that
through the preaching of your word this morning you would
reveal yourself to us. Nobody brings a lamp in to hide
it under a bed, and so you have not, you have not hidden
yourself from us. It's not hard to look into the
cosmos and to see a loving God upholding and sustaining all of
it. And yet so often we're blind to
that. And so, Lord, I just pray that
you would teach yourself about revelation this morning, That
you would show us how you reveal yourself to us, and that we
would accept our responsibility of paying attention.
That's my main job this morning, not to just preach and to just
say things and they just talk endlessly.
I need to pay attention to you, what you're doing and who you
are. And so, Lord, would you just
rock our world this morning? Just reveal yourself to us in a
fresh and new way. We pray all these things in the
precious name of Jesus and all God's people prayed.
Amen. You have a seat.
So we we've got to think a little bit this morning about
the exact relationship between revelation and attention.
OK, it's it's not science, right?
I can't break this down into a grid for you.
It's more more of a poetry, right?
What's it? What's exactly the relationship
between divine revelation, the things that God reveals to us on
the basis of his own grace? What's the relationship between
divine revelation and our human responsibility to pay attention
to what God is doing? This is at the root of what
Jesus is teaching right here, because Jesus is in the middle
of teaching in parables. And I think what's happening
right now is that the disciples, they're sold out on Jesus right
now, right? They've given up everything.
They've dropped their fishing Nets.
They're following Jesus around. They really believe that he's
the son of God and that he's the Messiah and they're giving
everything to follow Jesus around.
And Jesus heals people and he performs miracles and he teaches
and he draws a crowd to himself. He debates with the Pharisees.
And so he's generating a lot of buzz right now.
And as soon as he's generating buzz, and as soon as he starts
to get followers, he starts to teach in what appears to be like
a cryptic way, he starts to just hammer out this blast out, this
series of parables about what life with God is like.
And and the responses to Jesus parables are kind of like the
response to my mustache. Very mixed, polarizing, maybe
even divisive. It's drawing some people in.
It's pushing some people away. And so I think the disciples are
a little bit frustrating. They're like, Jesus, would you
just speak clearly? There's too much on the line to
be saying things like, oh, you know, the Kingdom of God is kind
of like a sower with the sea. Just speak clearly.
It's pushing people away. They're like publishers who are
trying to get him to write for a massive audience.
Just do that. Do that so we can get it.
Don't be creative and don't be a cryptic storyteller.
Just speak clearly. You can resonate with that,
right? I mean, it's not hard to imagine
you bringing like a buddy to church who doesn't believe in
the gospel and who you pray for. And you want them so badly to
just hear the gospel clearly, to bring them to church.
And then to have a pastor get up in front of them and be like,
well, you know, life with God is like fishing.
Let's pray. It's like, come on, man, be
clear. There's so much on the line.
So let me say something this morning.
Life with God is like fishing. I want to give you a parable of
three different fishermen. This is a true story.
Last year, Carlos and I go out fishing.
I wish Carlos were here right now because I'm really going to
pick on him in the next couple minutes.
Yeah, Nah he's alright. Just make sure he listens to the
recording. So Carlos and I jump in the car
together, we're going to go fish last summer and I grew up
fishing, love fishing. Every spare moment I had that I
wasn't playing football or wrestling, I wanted my fishing
pole, my tackle box and I wanted to be fishing with it.
Carlos however, did not grow up fishing, not in the least bit.
In fact, Carlos so didn't grow up fishing that on the drive
over he was like, bro, I think you're going to have to tie my
hook on. And I was like, I'm going to
slay you in fishing today. I'm going to fish circles around
you, Carlos. So didn't grow up fishing that
on the car drive over. I had heard about people like
this. I never met them before though
because on the drive over Carlos is like, look bro, if I catch a
fish, I need you to take it off the hook because I don't want to
touch a fish. And I was like, oh man, I'm
going to show this dude what's up.
I love fishing. So we get there and I'm just,
I'm ready to just just, you know, show off.
And so I'm like, yeah, man, like I'm just, I'm, you know, I'm
just me. I'm like life fishing is like
life with God, bro. Because sometimes you right.
And I I get out like the most expensive lure and I tie it on.
I'm hitting like my best cast that I can cast that I think are
going to like impress Bill dance.
I'm like trying to like cast the lure around logs, like trying to
cast it and hard to reach places.
And despite all of my amazing cast, which if you would been
there, you would have said Cole. That's an amazing catch cast.
I literally caught nothing all morning, like showing off
nothing, showing off nothing, didn't catch anything the entire
morning. Carlos on the other hand, he
takes his fishing pole and he does this thing.
It's a total rookie thing, right?
He tries to cast way out far, but he lets go of the release
way too late and so it just splashes right in front of him,
you know? It's like splashes it like 2
feet out there. I'm over there like under the
trees catching nothing. Carlos light accidentally
splashes it in front of him and bam, a fish hits it and he reels
it in. And I'm like, I hate fishing.
Give it your best efforts. Cast it under hard to reach
streets and catch nothing. You can splash it right in front
of your foot in a stupid fish bites it.
Why do I even do this? Well, the next week I took
Joseph with me. I said a tale of three
fishermen. So let me explain that.
Next week I take Joseph with me. Here's the thing about fishing.
Well, here's the thing about Joseph.
You guys know him as our worship leader and he's a great worship
leader, right? He's like, he's like the the the
Hillsong Bethel guy who accidentally wound up at
Bethlehem Baptist Church right here, the resident charismatic,
great singer. But if you know him really well,
you know that he's just like, I don't know, an Auburn football
fan, hillbilly Hick, who grew up fishing.
And so we go out fishing the next week.
And here's the thing. You can do impressive casts and
catch nothing. You can do horrible casts and
somehow catch things, but you know where you can't catch
anything. I've been holding on to this
video for a year now, and I'm not the kind of, hey, let's
watch a video in the middle of the sermon.
Let's watch the video in the middle of the sermon.
Here's where you can't catch fish.
Go ahead and hit the video. What are you doing up there,
man? There's some fish up there.
I want you to burn that image into your mind.
Not because it has anything to do with the sermon, but just
because I want to embarrass them.
Burn that into your mind. I like this video, and I like
this analogy because I think it's a great example of trying
to nail down the exact relationship between divine
revelation and human attention. Because for as much as I'm
making fun of myself, life with God and life in the Kingdom of
God is actually quite a bit like fishing.
As you give your attention to God, as you seek to get to know
God, a lot of times you're going to feel like Fisherman #1.
You're given your best efforts. You're going to prayer retreats.
You're carving out hours to pray to God, doing your best casts.
Sometimes it's going to feel like you don't even get a bite.
But a lot of times, life with God is going to feel quite a bit
like Fisherman #2. All you're going to be able to
do is splash the lure 2 feet in front of you.
All you're going to have is a spare moment here or there to
devote your attention to God. All you're going to have our
shower thoughts, right? But in those moments, God
perhaps will give you life changing revelation.
But whether you're fisherman #1 or #2, I think we can all agree
that we shouldn't aim to be fisherman #3.
Well, you know, it's the relationship between divine
revelation and human. I mean, if God's revelation
depends on his grace alone and nothing else, then why even
cast? I'm just going to cast it into
the treat right? Sometimes it's possible to just
give your attention away to places and things that God never
reveals himself to. Right?
Internal arguments. People pleasing.
Constantly wondering what people think about you internally.
Criticizing people all the time, mindlessly scrolling away, hours
of your life. It's like casting a lure into a
tree. There's no fish there.
So here's what I want us to see this morning.
There's a relationship between revelation and attention.
Yes, God reveals himself on the basis of grace alone, but our
job and responsibility is to position ourselves in such a way
that we are paying attention to Him.
Our job is really to just get the lure in the water.
Let me show you how Jesus is teaching this.
Right they're frustrated. Just speak clearly.
Parable #1A Lamp under a basket. Verse 21.
He said to them is a lamp brought in to be put under a
basket or under a bed and not on a stand.
Nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything
secret except to come to life. So what Jesus is saying is
nobody brings a lamp into a room just to hide it under a bed.
You get it. The first thing we have to do is
we have to talk about the nature of parables.
OK, so here's the way that a parable works.
Since Jesus is explaining parables in the middle of
telling parables, we need to talk a little bit about what
parables do. So parables were a pretty common
form of teaching back in Jesus's day.
What they were is they were a way of teaching about realities
like the Kingdom of heaven and the Kingdom of God in a way
that's hidden in like everyday items, everyday, ordinary
situations, right? So like, on the surface these
stories, they appear to be just about seeds and farming and soil
and lamps, just everyday objects.
And yet when you look inside of them, and when you crack them,
when when parables open themselves to you, you realize
that they're actually about reality and the Kingdom of God
and relationship with God. They're kind of like a Riddle.
I'm uncomfortable calling it a Riddle.
And some theologians would call it a Riddle because there's some
similarities there, right? Like, it's it's hard to figure
out. There's something kind of hidden
on the inside. But here's the thing about
riddles. How do you open a Riddle?
Intelligence, cleverness. That's not how you open a
parable. But if intelligence opened a
parable, then the Pharisees would have gotten it right.
I mean, these these jabronis, these Pharisees, these were some
smart blokes, OK? These dudes had the first five
books of the Old Testament memorized.
These are some smart guys. And yet when they hear the
parables, they're like, so it's not intelligence that opens up a
parable. What is it?
These ordinary stories. And yet on the inside, just
glorious realities. It's kind of like earlier this
week. Couple days ago, Della and I in
the rest of the Family, we fell in love with a TV show.
And this is embarrassing to say out loud because the first time
I ever saw the title of the TV show, I was like, that's the
worst premise in the world for a TV show.
But Della wanted to watch it a couple days ago.
So there we are like 3 episodes later, laughing, crying, arguing
about the Netflix special. Is it cake?
Are we the only ones? Oh my gosh, we have to talk
about this Okay. So the the premise of the show
is exactly the title is it cake? They bring in the best cake
bakers in the world and they make these incredibly realistic
looking cakes. And then they bring in a panel
of people. And the panel of people, the
experts, the judges have to be able to decipher is it cake or
is it not? It's, it's, I'm telling you,
it's actually riveting. Don't look at me like that.
It's actually riveting. So there Della and I are.
We're watching the first episode a couple days ago, and there's
this room filled with everyday ordinary objects.
And then they say, OK, there's three objects in here that are
cake. You've got to guess them with
one guess. And so I was like, OK, if I were
OK, I think it's probably the book because I think that'd be
the easiest shape to make a cake into.
OK, my final guess is a book. I was like, what about you,
Della? And she's like the flower.
It was in my mind, I was like, what a horrible guess.
How are you going to make a cake into a a flower?
I was like, good job, sweetie, let's lock that guess in.
But inside I was like, oh, I'm going to slay her at this.
And then the judges, right, that the the host comes out and he
goes over to the book, right? And he lowers the knife onto the
book. They slow down and freeze time.
Is it cake? And it goes, no, it's a real
book. I was like, no, that was my
guess. At least it wasn't as bad as
Della's guess. And so they go over to the
flower, right? They hold the knife above the
flower in the flower pot and they go, is it cake?
They start to lower it, right? Is it cake?
Right. They show the, the, the judge's
response, right? Everybody's guessing every leans
in. Is it cake?
And all the sudden the knife begins to cut through the flower
pot like butter. Is it cake?
And then the flower pot falls away and sure enough, inside of
the flower are beautiful layers of a cake.
I couldn't believe it. I turn over to Della.
I'm like, how did you know that was the cake?
And she was like, I love flowers.
This is the way the parables work, though, right?
They appear to be everyday ordinary objects, stories.
And then inside of them, hidden to adults like us but revealed
to children, are these delicious realities about the Kingdom of
God and what life with God is like.
And these parables, they don't open themselves up to people who
are just smarter than other people.
What makes them open up? OK, so here's Jesus.
He's saying, hey, nobody brings a lamp in to just hide it and
put it under a bed. I think the lamp here is a clear
reference to Jesus for a lot of different reasons.
I'll give you one. In the Old Testament, light and
lamps are very frequently metaphors for God.
So what I think Jesus is saying is, hey, I didn't come into the
world to just hide myself. It looks like it.
He's telling parables. So how does God reveal himself?
So we have to talk a little bit about the doctrine of
revelation. I need you guys to put on your
thinking caps really quickly. We're going to do 5 minutes of
academic stuff and I think the payoff is going to be huge.
Okay. So this is the way that an old
dead theologian named her Herman Bavink.
He was a Reformed theologian from the late 1800s, early
1900s. This is the way that he talks
about the doctrine of Revelation.
This is going to pay off, even though he's hard to follow along
with. So the first thing that Bavink
does is he shows how knowledge of God you gotta get this, how
knowledge of God differs from knowledge of everything else.
I should have that on the screen, Jay.
He says. The knowledge of God differs
from the knowledge of created things in every sense.
It differs first of all in its origin, For it is wholly owing
to Christ. We get all of our other
knowledge by reason or insight or judgment, our own effort and
study. But As for the knowledge of God,
it is nowhere outside of Christ, neither in schools of learning
nor among philosophers of distinction.
Christ alone knew the Father. Christ alone was with the Father
in the beginning, and nothing in the being of the Father is
hidden from the Son. Therefore, As for the knowledge
of God, we must let Christ give it to us.
I want you to hear what he said when it comes to knowledge of
God. What Bhavink is arguing is that
knowledge of God is entirely dependent upon revelation.
Jesus has to give it to us. They're just sitting around and
guess what God is like. Or worse, follow our stomach
feels or what we wish you were like.
We have to let Jesus tell us what God is like, and that means
that knowledge of God is entirely relational rather than
academic. So we have to pay attention to
Jesus. Listen to him, listen to him in
the scriptures, listen to him in prayer.
So this is how Bobbing finishes his section on revelation.
Revelation is based on grace and relationship, right?
So he goes on to say. Therefore this knowledge in
distinction from all other forms of knowledge is called the
knowledge of God. It is the product not of
scientific study and reflection, but of childlike faith and
divine grace. Only those who become like
little children enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Only those born of the Spirit can enter the Kingdom.
And here's the line I really want to hammer into your heart,
Bobink concludes by saying. Therefore, God is known in
proportion to the extent that he is loved.
God is known in proportion to the extent that he is loved.
So there's a difference between knowing about somebody and
knowing somebody. I had Ken Griffey Junior's
baseball cards memorized when I was little.
I knew about Griffey. But if you went to Ken Griffey
Junior and were like, hey, what do you think about cold Nike?
He'd be like what? Knowing about somebody is
different than knowing somebody. If you're married, you know that
you don't get to project yourself onto your spouse.
If you want to know her, if you want to know him, you have to
let her reveal herself to you, right?
This is the way that revelation works.
We don't get to be like, well, I think God is like this because
my dad sucked. Or I think God is like this
because. But no, no, no.
We have to let Jesus reveal himself to us.
So we pay attention to him and allow him to reveal himself to
us in love. God is known in proportion to
the extent that he's loved. OK, so think about that.
Here's the way this works. It's possible to know this much
about God, but if you only love him this much, then you only
know him that much. You see that it's possible to
know this much about God, but if you love him this much, you know
him that much. God's known to the extent that
he's loved. And So what opens up a parable?
It's not intelligence. It's not worldly cleverness.
What opens up a parable? Affection.
Love for God, right? There's Jesus saying, hey,
nobody brings in a lamp to just hide it.
You get what he's saying. This is why parables are just an
absolutely perfect form of Jesus revealing himself to us, because
it pushes away those who don't love him and it draws people who
do love him to him like an absolute magnet.
This is the way that parables work.
OK, got to hear me say this? OK?
Jesus is not hiding himself from people who want him.
Jesus has never, ever, ever, ever.
Jesus has never hidden himself. Jesus has never pushed somebody
away from himself who wants him. But he will use a parable to
push away those who don't want to pay attention to him and to
draw in those who do want to pay attention to him.
He's not hiding himself. He's on full display.
And he does. He does give one caveat there,
right in verse 22 he says nothing is hidden except to be
made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light.
And so there are going to be times where you really want to
know something from the Lord, and he strategically doesn't
reveal it to you. He makes you wrestle for it, he
makes you grapple with it, and then in due time he he reveals
it to you. It does work that way, but he
does not hide himself from those who love him.
Because you can look at a parable.
You can say Okay is, is Jesus hiding himself or is he
revealing himself? And the answer is yes.
The difference is who's willing to pay attention to Jesus,
right? That's the second parable.
Look at verse 24. And he said to them, this is the
only commandment in this entire section.
And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear with
the measure you use. It'll be measured to you and
still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more
will be given. And from the one who has not.
He's not talking about material goods here.
Okay, this is not like some people twist this.
They're like the reason you're poor is but no, no, no, that's
that's baloney. Okay.
He's talking about revelation. OK?
For the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who
has not, even more will be taken away.
So what's what's going on here? Well, the the measure here, they
they didn't use, you know, teaspoons and tablespoons back
in the day, but they had their own measures.
But just think of it in terms of teaspoons and tablespoons.
What Jesus is saying is if you give him this much attention,
he'll fill you with that much revelation.
What he's saying is that you if you hold out a teaspoon of your
attention, he'll give you a teaspoon of revelation.
This is a proverb, not a promise.
Sometimes it's not an exact science.
If you hold out your hands to him, he'll fill them with
knowledge of yourself. If you knock, he'll open.
If you give him your heart, he'll feel it.
And some. Did you notice that right?
He? It's not just a one to one
ratio, right? With the measure you use, it'll
be measured to you and still more will be added to you
because our God is a God of grace.
Amen. So you give him this, he's going
to give you that. And top it off, Give him a
teaspoon. He's going to fill the teaspoon.
But like a heaping teaspoon. That's the way he That's the way
he is. And so what's why does Jesus use
parables? Why does he speak in riddles?
What's the point of all of this? Well, look at the one
commandment in this entire section.
Pay attention. Jesus is not like gravity.
Sometimes we treat him as just an impersonal force.
Well, he's sovereign over anything.
He's he's sovereign over everything.
He's going to do what he's going to do whether or not I
contribute or chip in. And anyway, he controls the
cosmos. So what's even the point?
That is not the way that Jesus talks about being in
relationship with him. I love the sovereignty of God.
I love his control over every square inch of the cosmos.
But Jesus talks about being in relationship with him as a
relationship. He's not just gravity going to
be there, whether or not I'd do anything.
No, no, no, no. There's a relational dynamic
here, right? What's the relational dynamic?
He reveals you. Pay attention, he reveals you.
Pay attention. He reveals you.
Pay attention. Pay attention.
We have this phrase in the Dikey house when sometimes the kids
aren't listening to Mom or dad. We got it from Proverbs chapter
one, right when when the kids aren't listening and they're
just doing their own thing and our words are going in one ear
and out the other going over their heads, we'll ask the kids
this question. Hey, what are mommy's words?
What are daddy's words? And Proverbs one says, well,
here's the way our kids say it. Hey, what are daddy's words?
And they'll say a crown. So Proverbs one says, God's
words. A mother's word, a father's word
is a crown, right? What do you do with a crown?
Well, I think there's two ways to pay attention to God.
Here's one. You
see where my joy is, right? That's the 1st way to pay
attention to God. There is a second way to pay
attention to God. This way.
Get out of there. Right.
That's what you do with the crown, right?
That's what you do with the crown.
You admire it. Pay attention to it.
Then you wear it. That's what you do with the
crown, right? Pay attention Mary Oliver.
One of the best living poets, right?
I mean, maybe next to the 2 W B's, right?
Wendell Berry and Will boards. Here's what Mary Oliver says.
She's just brilliant. She says Attention is the
beginning of devotion. Whatever you give your attention
to, right, that's going to be where your affection is.
Whatever you give your attention will be your affection.
Pay attention. I mean, isn't that just a great
phrase? Pay like it's a limited
resource. Like it's a finite resource like
money. You only have so much of it to
give, so don't throw it over you.
Don't throw it over there. Don't mindlessly give it away.
What do you do with it? Pay it.
Pay attention to Jesus in prayer, in church, at at your
work and meditation and reading the scriptures.
Pay What's it mean to pay attention?
Here's the way that Oliver Berkman not a Christian, but
man. He's a social commentator and he
just nails it in this book. Here's the way that he says it.
All right. And I've got this on the screen
because you have to reckon with us, He says, quote, you've heard
it. Say you've heard it said that
attention is a finite resource. And finite it is.
According to one psychologist, we're capable of consciously
attending to about 0.0004% of the information bombarding our
brains at any given moment. But to describe attention as a
resource is to misconstrue its centrality in our lives.
Most other resources like food, money, and electricity, are
things that facilitate life. In some cases, it's possible to
live without them, at least for a while.
Attention, on the other hand, just is your life, your
experience of being alive consists.
Of nothing other than the sum of everything to which you paid
attention to at the end of your life, looking back.
Whatever compelled your attention from moment to moment
is simply what your life will have been.
So when you pay attention to something that you don't
particularly value, it's not an exaggeration to say that you're
paying with your life. So when you pay attention to
Jesus, you're giving him your life again.
That's why the parables are like such a perfect example of God
revealing himself to us, because it weeds out those who want to
pay attention to Him from those who don't really care about
paying attention to him. It's a way of weeding out those
who want to give their lives to God from those who really don't
want to give their lives to God. Parables are they're brilliant,
their way of telling the truth and slant hear this truth said
over and over again your entire life.
You know something and someone tells it to you in a parable and
it's like Bam tells it and slant knocks you over.
Parables are these beautiful, radical, earth changing ways of
teaching and I think one of the reasons why Jesus teaches
parables is because Jesus doesn't just teach parables.
Jesus is a parable. Jesus is a parable with arms and
legs on him. It's it's what he is.
Some people look at Jesus and all they see is an ordinary man.
Right? Well, you know, he lived 2000
years ago. He was a pretty good teacher and
then he died. All of those things are true.
But when you look at him, you see that and something, don't
you? Right.
Well, the the biggest question you have to reckon with in your
entire life is the one that Della and I have been reckoning
with for the last couple days. When you look at Jesus, you have
to ask yourself the question. Is it cake?
Is he just another historical figure right up there with
Socrates? And you know, although is is he
or is he cake? Right?
Is it? Does he satisfy my soul?
Right? Is he my fullness of joy?
Is he my pleasures for evermore? Can I just pay attention to him
and get nourishment from him? Is he cake?
Right. He's he's a parable.
He's a parable with with skin on.
Some people look at him and you know the the Pharisees look at
him and they see a human being and they're right.
I mean, Jesus had body odor, right?
If he rolled his ankle, he would limp.
If he got hungry, his stomach would growl.
He is 100% human. And yet that's not the only way
you see him. You look at him and on the
inside you see not just 100% human, you see 100% divine.
You look at him and you think this is what God is like.
This is who God is. This is the king of the cosmos.
This is the Son of David. This is the Savior, the Messiah,
the Lion of Judah. This is everything I've ever
waited for. Same person drives one person
away, compels one person in. And Jesus doesn't just live as a
living, breathing parable. He acts out parables and that's
why his life climaxes and the greatest parable that's ever
been told, the cross of Christ. The cross of Jesus is the
ultimate parable. Some people look at it and all
they see is another ordinary zealot being crucified on a
cross because of Rome. They look at Jesus and they
think, oh poor Jesus. They look at Jesus and they see
a victim. They look at the cross and
they're like, well, that's where an otherwise good teaching
ministry came to an end. They look at the cross and they
think that's where the Kingdom fails.
That's not how you see it, though.
You see the parable. You look at the cross and you
think, no, no, no, that's not where the Kingdom of God fails.
That's where the Kingdom of God is launched.
You look at it. It's not just a historical
moment. You look at it.
It's not just 2000 years removed.
You look at it. It's not just the beginning of
another calendar. You look at it and you think
that's where all of my forgiveness comes from.
You look at it and you say that's where my mistakes and my
sins go to hell. You look at it and you think
that's where I'm covered in righteousness.
You look at it and you think that's where the Kingdom of God
has launched. You look at it and you say
that's cake. It's not just a removed event.
I can bite into it by faith, and God opens it up to me, and
that's the way that parables work.
So let me end by coming back to my parable of three fishermen.
I want to come back to this parable once more, and then I'll
pray and get out of your way. When you think about that
parable, I think, I think it's a perfect description because it
it shows you exactly what your responsibility is in terms of
giving God your attention. Your job as a follower of Jesus
isn't to be so smart that you figure out Jesus, or to be so
spiritual that you hear the voice of God in audible English
every time you close your eyes. Revelation isn't your job.
You don't have to force any super spiritual moments.
You don't have to coerce God into talking to you because
revelation isn't your job. Revelation is God's job.
Your job is to just pay attention, right?
Think about our three fishermen, fishermen.
Number one tries really hard and executes the perfect cast only
to catch nothing. My dad used to say a good day of
fishing is just getting the lure wet.
Any fish is a cherry on top. You have to approach God like
that. Just giving God my attention is
a good day. Any revelation is the cherry on
top, because sometimes you're going to be like Fisherman #1,
giving God your best efforts and it doesn't feel like you really
got a bite. But sometimes you're going to be
like Fisherman #2. He doesn't have impressive
casting skills, but even when he splashes the lure 2 feet in
front of his face, the river provides him with a fish.
The Lord of Grace provides you with a revelation, even if all
you have is a spare moment to give.
So here's the point. Just get the fishing lure wet.
Just get it in the water. Just give your attention to
Jesus. Just hold out the measuring
spoon. And in the same way that the
river gives you the fish out of its own grace and not the
efforts of your casting. Just give your attention to
Jesus and receive whatever grace he gives to you.
Here, see us, Lewis, summarizing what I've been trying to say for
40 minutes. Way better and way quicker in
one paragraph. I'll have it on the screen for
you, he says, an impersonal God. All well and good.
An impersonal God does nothing, demands nothing.
He's there. If you wish for him like a book
on a shelf, He will not pursue you.
A subject of God, of beauty, truth and goodness inside of our
own heads. Better still, a formless life
for surging through us, a vast power which we can tap.
Oh, isn't that just the best of all?
But God himself alive pulling at the other end of the line?
Well, that is quite another matter.
Maybe the reason you give him so little attention isn't because
you're afraid that you'll be met with silence.
Maybe the reason you give him so little attention is because you
fear he will speak and then everything will have to change.
So pay attention, pray with me, Heavenly Father, even though
this is just made, these are amazing parables and stories and
and what they do is they drive us to give all of our attention
to God and and that's an amazing thing.
But there are going to be many days and many times where we
just throw our attention away when we fail to be in communion
with God and we fail to think about the glory of God.
And what we need to know is that there's grace for us in Jesus.
And not only is there grace for us, but I think the most amazing
thing for us to realize is that Jesus isn't asking us to do
anything that Jesus is unwilling to do.
When he tells us to pay attention to him, it's because
he already pays attention to us. He loves us, knows us, is in
relationship with us, and listens to us.
We can pay attention to him because he first paid attention
to us. So here's what we do, church.
We're going to transition into a time of communion together.
And as we do, this is just a perfect opportunity for you to
pay attention, right? You look at the bread and the
wine. Is Jesus hidden or revealed?
The answer is yes. Do you see him?
Do you hear him? Do you want him?
And I'm like, I hate fishing.