Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

I grew up in Sacramento.

We had two seasons.

Hot and fog!

For months in the summer you wouldn’t see a cloud.

Then in the winter months thick fog often keeps you from seeing across the street.

One was not seeing because it wasn’t there.

The other was not seeing because what was there!

I’m sure we’ve all been at the place when God calls us to something, or for something, and we can’t see the there there.

No matter if you are straining to see what seems to be missing, or what you know you need to see is hidden behind so many of life’s distractions, todays passage will help us see the key to clarity of seeing, knowing, and following God’s will and plan for our lives.

Pray

Jesus and His disciples left the Pharisees who refused to see who Jesus was.

As they leave those who wont see, Jesus addresses those who don’t see, the Disciples.

they weren’t prepared for the quick departure so had not readied the supplies.

They didn’t pack lunch!

Finally, they come to the one who can’t see.

As we consider those three states - wont, don’t, and can’t - consider which would be easiest to correct.

Wont Refuses

Wont:

Has all the faculty to be able to

Has the information to understand

Lack the will to acknowledge

The state that has the least preventing seeing is the one who wont.

But if any of you has ever engaged in arguing with someone on social media knows, a settled mind is a terribly hard thing to change!

“Here are the facts.”

That should prove the point.

Convince the skeptic.

Win the argument.

But it doesn’t.

Even Jesus can to the point of giving up on changing hearts that refused to be changed!

The first thing we need to see to follow God’s will for us is:

Submit to His Authority.

Don’t Confuses

Don’t:

Has the faculty to be able to

Lacks the information to understand

May/may not have the will to acknowledge

Those who don’t see don’t lack desire, and they don’t lack ability.

They lack information.

Or understanding.

This is a person in process.

Do we chide a child who can’t do algebra, we train then from their current level toward that goal.

This is where I think most people live in their faith.

Looking for incremental growth and change.

It is a necessary part of the process, but it’s not all.

The second thing we need to see to follow God’s will for us is:

Pursue His Guidance.

Can’t Is Hopeless

Can’t

Lacks the faculty

Lacks the information

Has the will, but no ability to pursue it

Can’t is the hardest case.

No facility.

No ability.

No information.

But only unfulfillable desire.

Frustration and futility.

Here is where Jesus makes His point.

This is where He give hope and meaning.

This is the application for the disciples who were confused on the boat.

They had certainly submitted to His authority.

They were pursuing His guidance.

But why were they still missing it?

Let’s take a closer look.

Jesus is teaching his disciples about warning signs that prevent walking in the Kingdom of God.

Those signs are described by blindness and sin.

And they are personified by the Pharisees and Harod.

He calls both warning signs Leven - or the rising of bread.

This was symbolic of sin in the use of bread for any religious connotation in Israel.

This is the precise reason Lords Supper crackers are so unenjoyable!

Two warnings in two opposite ends of the spectrum - Pius Pride, and Licentious Living.

Jesus taught that either attitude would cause them to fail to see God’s purpose and plan.

But the disciples, apparently free from either of those attitudes were still short of what they needed.

There is a path to God’s Kingdom available in our lives that is constrained on one side by pride and on the other side by sinfulness.

But the path straight ahead is blocked because we are broken.

We talk about the Kingdom of God.

But I think we might be shaky on exactly what that means.

There was a definition for the Kingdom of God in the second discipleship book we are going through.

“The Kingdom is the range of God’s effective will where what He wants done is done.”

That’s a great definition.

How do we do the will of God? Jesus already taught two things that prevents us from doing so: Pride in OUR righteousness and a disregard for any righteousness.

But they needed something else.

WE need something else.

Jesus takes them to the object lesson of the blind man.

This is the answer to Jesus hanging question at during the boat ride: “Do you not yet understand?”

So we get back to “Can’t is Hopeless”

As Jesus brings the attention to the blind man, there are four applications that answer the question, give them and us hope, and shows the path forward to the Kingdom of God.

Fundamentally broken

Blindness was separation.

No way to self-correct.

Nothing to do but beg.

The question is, who will you beg to?

Family?

The government?

Your employer?

Or as another blind man did, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Transformed By Jesus

We must cry out to be transformed.

Not informed.