17 January 2016
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Mark 14:12-21
Mark 14:12-21 (NIV)
12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when
it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him,
"Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the
Passover?"
13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go
into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.
14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher
asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'
15 He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready.
Make preparations for us there."
16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things
just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve.
18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said,
"I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me--one who is eating with
me."
19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him,
"Surely not I?"
20 "It is one of the Twelve," he replied,
"one who dips bread into the bowl with me.
21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.
But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if
he had not been born."
-- to
paraphrase from a devotional I read this week, “anyone who believes all dogs go
to heaven has never had a German shorthaired pointer”1
-- not long
after Kim and I started dating, I fell in love with German shorthaired pointers
-- or maybe I should say, I fell in the love with the idea of a German
shorthaired pointer
-- to me,
they were the ideal dog -- versatile dogs that you could take quail hunting in
the morning or hog hunting in the evening -- tough as nails -- short hair --
docked tail -- easy care -- better retrievers even than labradors or golden
retrievers
-- these
were dogs who could go anywhere and do anything -- who could stay out in the
field and never get tired -- and as I was starting my career as a wildlife
biologist, I had these visions of being in the field with a loyal German
shorthaired pointer there at my side -- tracking big game and doing research on
quail -- but little did I know the truth about this breed
-- so Kim
indulges my fads and fancies, and the very first present she ever gave me was a
German shorthaired pointer puppy I called Hawk -- and I loved that dog, but it
bothered me that every time I would go out with a bunch of people, Hawk would
leave me and follow them -- even when I called him back, he wouldn’t come --
Kim said it was because I was trying to make him obey and do what is right, and
since he was a puppy, he just wanted to rebel, but eventually he’d come around
-- he didn’t -- he actually wandered off one day and never came back and I
never saw him again
-- but by
that time, I was convinced this was the breed for me -- and Kim and I had made
acquaintances with a nationally known breeder in Lawrenceville and when she had
a litter of really nice puppies, I agreed to buy one without even asking Kim
first -- and so begins the story of Angel
-- never,
never name a dog Angel -- especially a German shorthaired pointer -- if I
thought my first dog had a rebellious streak, he had nothing on this hell-hound
-- Angel was strong-willed, obstinate, rebellious to a fault -- she was going
to do what she wanted and it didn’t matter whether you yelled “No” at the top
of your voice or you ran her down and whipped her -- I tried every dog-training
trick in the book, and nothing worked -- this dog refused to obey and continued
on a willful path of destruction and rebellion
-- I just
want to share with you one story about Angel that just really sums up who this
dog was
-- we were
taking Angel to be bred in Atlanta to a very high quality dog -- I was driving
her down from Tennessee to Atlanta in the back of the Isuzu pickup with camper
top I used to own -- Kim asked me to stop along the way and pick up some
special dog food she had ordered and to deliver a couple bags in Atlanta and
bring the rest home
-- Angel
had a problem with food -- she would eat anything and everything she could --
She once ate 40 pounds of dog food in one sitting before we found her -- so I said
to Kim, “Where am I supposed to put 400 pounds of dogfood?” -- Kim said, “Just
put it in the back with Angel -- it’s in a sealed bag, she won’t mess with it”
-- now we
had to lock the camper top to keep it closed -- so after I loaded the dogfood
at the store, I put Angel back in the truck, and locked the camper top and
dropped the keys in my pocket -- and I am telling the truth here
-- that dog
looked at me through the back glass -- and then she looked down at the dog food
bags she was standing on in the back of the truck -- and then she looked at me
again -- I believe that dog realized I couldn’t get to her as fast as she could
get to that dog food -- and we both knew it
-- I said,
“No -- Angel, No” -- and she looked at me for one more second and then dove
head first into that dog food, ripping the bag open with her teeth and her
claws -- and just started gobbling food up
-- all the
while I’m yelling, “No,” and beating on the glass and trying to get the key out
of my pocket so I could stop this dog from killing herself -- I finally got the
back open and had to drag the dog out of the truck, with her steadily crunching
dog food the whole way -- she ended up riding in the front of the truck with me
all the way to Atlanta, looking mournfully through the sliding glass window at
the dog food laying in the back
II. Prone to Wander
-- now this
message is not really just about German shorthaired pointers -- but I bring all
this up about Angel because I see in her who we are as Christians
-- it
reminds me of the story of Robert Robinson, the author of the hymn, "Come,
Thou Fount of Every Blessing" -- there’s a stanza in that hymn that speaks
of our tendency to do and to be just like a German shorthaired pointer in the
back of the truck standing on dog food
-- Robinson
wrote: "prone to wander, Lord, I feel it -- prone to leave the God I love
-- here's my heart, O take and seal it -- seal it for thy courts above"
-- that’s
us -- even as Christians, we are still prone to wander away from God -- prone
to leave the God we love and to do what He would not want us to do -- even as
He calls to us through His word and through His Spirit and says, “No, don’t do
that” -- we look at Him and start tearing open the bags of sin we’re standing
on and start gobbling up that which is not good for us
-- it’s
like the Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:15-20
Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do
not do, but what I hate I do.
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the
law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is
sin living in me.
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my
sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it
out.
19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil
I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I
who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
-- just as
Robinson said in his hymn, the Apostle Paul cries out in these verses and
laments, “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it -- prone to leave the God I love”
-- like it
or not, this is who we are -- just like Robert Robinson -- just like the
Apostle Paul -- all of us have this tendency in our lives to wander away -- to
drift from God and from His word
-- it’s so
easy to see this time of the year -- how many of you made New Year’s
resolutions? -- I did -- I had gained a few pounds over Thanksgiving and
Christmas and I was going to buckle down and really lose that weight and even
drop down to a goal I had set -- 2016 was going to be the year that I got into
shape again -- and here we are at Day 17 and I haven’t lost a pound -- in fact,
I have gained 6 pounds since I started my New Year’s resolution -- left to my
own devices, I give in to sin every single time
-- but
here’s the good news -- Jesus knows -- Jesus knows that we have this tendency
in our lives and so He warns us about it in His word
III. Scripture Lesson: Surely, not I (Mark
14:12-21)
-- look
back at this passage in the Book of Mark
-- Mark
14:12-16
Mark 14:12-16 (NIV)
12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when
it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him,
"Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the
Passover?"
13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go
into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.
14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher
asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'
15 He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready.
Make preparations for us there."
16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things
just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
-- in this
passage, we read Mark's account of the Last Supper -- Jesus and His disciples
were getting ready to celebrate the Passover meal -- and since they were just
visitors to Jerusalem, His disciples didn't know where they would be holding
the meal
-- so Jesus
told them to go into the city and they would find a man carrying jars of water
-- they were to follow him home and say to the owner of the house, `The Teacher
asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'
He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for
us there."
-- so the
disciples went on their way and found everything just as Jesus said -- they got
the upper room in that house ready and now the 13 of them were relaxing around
the table, sharing together the Passover Seder -- the traditional Jewish meal
held each Passover
-- but
rather than being a time of joyous celebration, you get the sense that there
was a pall over that evening -- a foreshadowing of the events to come
-- verse 17-21
17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve.
18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said,
"I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me--one who is eating with
me."
19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him,
"Surely not I?"
20 "It is one of the Twelve," he replied,
"one who dips bread into the bowl with me.
21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.
But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if
he had not been born."
--
now, we all know the end of the story -- we all know that it was Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus into the hands of the high priest for 30 pieces of silver --
that it was Judas Jesus was primarily talking about -- but I think He’s saying
more here than just calling Judas out -- I think there is a message for us, if
we will but listen
-- when
Jesus tells His chosen disciples in verse 18 that one of them will betray Him,
look at their response -- verse 19
19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him,
"Surely not I?"
--
"surely not I?"
-- Jesus
was pointing out to them something that every single one of the disciples knew
deep down in their heart -- every single one of those disciples -- Peter,
James, John -- all of them -- asked Jesus that same question, “surely not I?”
-- because every
single one of them knew the truth that each of us knows in our own hearts --
the same truth that Robert Robinson knew in his heart when he penned those
words, "prone to wander, Lord, I feel it -- prone to leave the God I
love" and when the Apostle Paul wrote, “I do not understand why I do what
I do”
--
regardless of your relationship with Christ -- regardless of your position in
the church -- regardless of whether you are a pastor or Sunday School teacher
or worship leader or lay leader -- regardless of whether you are a Methodist or
a Baptist or an Episcopalian -- we are all just one step away from being Judas
-- just one step away from betraying our God
-- left to
our own devices, the normal tendency is for us to wander -- our flesh betrays
us -- and so we give into temptation and disobey God and sin against Him -- and
the whole point of this message is to make sure you know that
-- it’s who
we are -- it’s what we do -- but, like they say in Alcoholics Anonymous --
admitting you have a problem is the first step to getting better
-- if we
admit it -- if we remember that we are prone to wander -- that we default to
disobedience and sin in our lives -- that will help us make better choices in
the long run because we will be prepared when confronted with the daily
temptations that afflict us all
-- so how
do we stop when we find ourselves drifting away from God -- when we see our
resolve giving way?
-- first,
we have to make a choice to follow God and His commands -- John tells us that
he wrote his epistle of 1 John so that we might not sin -- sin is a choice, but
so is obedience -- in 1 John 2:6, “Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as
Jesus did”
-- so the
first step in stopping the slide and the drift away from God is making a firm
resolution and commitment to choose to obey rather than disobey
--
secondly, we need to soften our hearts and to be open to the changes God wants
to make in our lives -- we need to let Him mold us and shape us into the men
and women He is calling us to be -- to not resist Him, but to work with Him --
Isaiah 64:8 says “We are the clay, You are the Potter; we are the work of Your
hand” -- we need to trust God and let Him change us from the inside out
-- third,
we need to take action -- we can’t be passive Christians -- if we remain
passive, then our natural bent will take over and we will start to drift away
from God -- Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:13-14 “Therefore, prepare your minds for
action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when
Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil
desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
-- since we
are aware of our tendency to wander away from God, we need to prepare ourselves
against it -- we need to be self-controlled and disciplined in our spiritual
lives -- this means clinging to God -- staying in His word -- staying around
His people -- talking to God in prayer -- worshiping God with our hearts and
our voices -- serving Him with our ends -- the more we stick to God, the less
likely we are to wander away
-- finally,
we need to trust God’s grace is greater than our tendency to wander away just
as His grace is greater than our sin -- Jude 24 says: “To him who is able to
keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without
fault and with great joy”
-- did you
hear what God said in that verse? -- God is able to keep us from falling -- God
is able to keep us from wandering away -- from drifting into temptation and sin
-- God is able...if we let Him -- if we trust Him and His grace to keep us
close
-- God’s
grace is sufficient for us and can overcome our flesh and our hearts and our
tendency to wander away -- God wants us
to rely on His power to do it through us -- we fail and wander away when we
rely on ourselves rather than God
-- Dave
Guzik wrote, "more Christians are defeated on account of self-reliance
than on account of Satanic attack" -- and the cartoon character Pogo said,
"We have met the enemy, and he is us"
-- new
year’s resolutions fail because they are made in the power of man -- Christians
fail because they try to live life in their own strength and their own power --
if we are to live differently and choose a different path, we must choose to
live in the power of Christ -- Philippians 1:6 says, “He who began a good work
in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”
-- a
maturing faith moves us from self-reliance to God-reliance in all aspects of
our spiritual and daily lives -- it is when we begin to rely on God and His
grace that we overcome our tendency to turn away from Him in our lives
IV. Closing
-- so as I
close, let me leave you with this thought -- don’t be like a German shorthaired
pointer -- don’t go through life obstinate and continue to resist God and what
He wants to do in us and through us
-- recognize
that you are prone to wander -- prone to leave the God you love -- set your
mind and your heart against this tendency
-- take
action and stay close to God through His word and His people and through prayer
and worship -- resolve to live for Him through His grace and power in this new
year and trust Him to see you through
-- we can
overcome our sinful natures through the power of Christ in us -- but we must
choose to do so daily
-- let us pray
--------------------------------------------------
1 Sermon built on devotional, “The Prodigal Beagle,” by
Steve Scott, “Faith Afield: A Sportsman’s Devotional”
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