Ablaze: Change of Community

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

  Sunday, May 14, 2006

Man, free gas! Doesn't that sound good? Free fuel for your car. Doesn't it sound appealing? Well, in 2004 and a place called Pittsfield Town , Michigan , that's exactly what happened. Pittsfield Town , Michigan . Having grown up in Michigan , I can tell you that's an accurate description. That's another story. Back in 2004, an individual discovered at one of the service stations in Pittsfield Town, if you went up to the self serve pump, you know, where you pay at the pump, if you took your driver's license with the magnetic strip on it and you rammed that through the card reader instead of your credit card, there was some glitch in the computer system and it would turn the pump on. Turn the pump on, of course, and you fill your tank up with gas but there's no charge card to it to charge the cost of the gasoline from, so you essentially drive away with free gas. Well, from the one individual who found out that glitch in the system, it spread to over 100 individuals who took advantage of it, some of them up to 15 tanks of gas they filled up before they discovered there was something wrong.

Now that was back in 2004. I don't know about you but I don't remember what we were paying for gas back in 2004, but I am certain it's less than what we're paying today. In fact, as I go by the gas stations, we look at $2.50, $2.75, they say it's going to be $3.00 a gallon this summer, on the coast it's already at $3.50 and $3.80 a gallon, so I wonder if we discovered that same glitch today, if you and I discovered that, say, on the east side there was a certain service station, if you ran your driver's license through, the magnetic strip on that would turn the pump on, how appealing would that be? How tempting would that be to go over and fill your tank up with gas?

Well, let's look at two different scenarios on how you would have this piece of information given to you. The first scenario is after church. After church, you're out in the narthex, you're sipping on coffee, maybe you make your way down to a cappuccino. You're sitting there and you're talking with a group of people. And, all of a sudden, somebody comes up and he says, “You know, there's this computer geek at work and he's always finding stuff. And he told me those magnetic readers for charge cards sometimes mess up. In fact, he told me, on East 14 th Street , there's a station there, if you take your driver's license and run it through the machine, it kicks the machine on, you can fill your tank up because there's no card for it to charge to. It's free. The guy's been doing it for a month.” Well, the conversation goes around, people saying, “Boy, that would be tempting.” Somebody else pipes up and says, “Yeah, I spent 40 bucks to fill up my tank.” Somebody else says, “Yeah, it was 30 for me.” But, before the conversation ends, more than likely, someone in the group would say, “Yeah, but we just can't. You know, no matter how you look at it, it's stealing. You're taking something. I don't like the price of gas either. I don't like what's happening but, I don't know about you guys, I couldn't do it because, frankly, it's just stealing.” And the conversation ends. How likely would you be then to jump in your car, go to East 14 th Street , use your driver's license instead of a credit card, and fill up for free?

Second scenario. You're on the soccer fields. You're on the soccer fields either because your child or grandchild or niece or nephew is playing soccer. Well, they're off the field so who cares about the game. And you gather around with a bunch of friends, and you're talking. And the same conversation ensues, alright? And somebody at work, a computer geek has discovered this flaw in the system on East 14 th Street but this time, the person telling the story takes a little bit different track. He says, “You know, as far as I'm concerned, as soon as the game is over, I'm heading over to East 14 th Street and I'm filling up.” Now somebody in the group says, “Well, you know, that's not really fair to the owner of the station. I mean, he's losing money and that doesn't quite seem right.” He says, “No, no, no, no. My computer geek friend told me the pumps and all that is proprietary, so that belongs to the oil companies. So anything that happens there is going to be their responsibility to reimburse him, so the local guy's not going to lose anything. We're going to get back at the oil companies.” And then he goes off on a rant and he says, “Have you seen the profit margin of the oil companies lately? Did you see what it was last quarter? They are making record profits off of us. All they're doing is just rationing up so we get used to it so, six months from now when it's $2.75 a gallon, we'll think we're getting a bargain. Well, as far as I'm concerned,” he continues, “they've been stealing from me long enough. And as long as that card reader will take my driver's license, I'm filling up, pals. So it's over on East 14 th Street . Follow me if you want.” How likely would you be in that scenario given his argument to drive over to East 14 th Street and fill up? Would it be a little bit more of a debate in your own mind given Scenario No. 2 as opposed to Scenario No. 1?

You see, whether we like it or not, whether we want to admit it or whether we know it, we are influenced by the people around us. We're influenced by their talk. We're influenced by the way they think. We're influenced by the people we associate with, and that comes out in our actions. It could either be a good influence or a negative influence. Every mom knows that, right? Every mom worries about the fact that they want their children to have nice friends. From the earliest of ages, every mom worries and frets that their son or daughter is going to have nice friends, friends that will encourage them to do the right thing, not do the wrong thing. And it really doesn't stop there. It even goes on with their teenagers, because every mom knows the danger of “falling into the wrong crowd.” In fact, what mother has not told us, I know mine told me, when I'd bring some friend home, she'd say after they left, “You know, I don't know about that boy. He just looks like trouble to me.” Evidently, your moms have said it to you also. How often was Mom right? Yeah, frustrating, wasn't it? Certainly. Because moms know. Moms know that friends influence us and they can make or break us. Now what we don't know or maybe what we don't realize is that it doesn't magically stop when you move into adulthood. It doesn't, all of a sudden, after you're out of the teenage years, now you're not influenced by the people around you. Adults are influenced by their friends and associates just as much as kids and teenagers are. That's why scripture said a few moments ago in 1 Corinthians, “Bad company corrupts good character.” Bad company, those we associate with, corrupts even a person of good character because we're influenced by the world around us.

We're finishing up this week our Ablaze of refueling the fire, that is, the faith God has given to us is burning brightly in our hearts and how can we keep that burning brightly? And we've looked at some of the things that maybe need to change in our life. This week, as we wrap it up, we have rather a tough one and that is do we need to change our community? That is, do we need to change the people we surround ourselves with? Do we need to change those who are influencing us?

To sort of guide us through that, we're going to use the parable that Jesus told, the Parable of the Sower. Now I know we just read it a moment ago, but let's just sort of recap, if you will, and walk through it. So Jesus tells this parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn't you sow good seed in the field? Where then did the weeds come from?' ‘An enemy did this,' he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?' ‘No,' he answered, ‘because while you're pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest.'”

Now a little bit of background knowledge here. The people of Jesus' day would understand that parable perfectly because what they would understand is that wheat, when it first germinates and comes out of the ground, looks identical to a weed called darnel. And when the weed darnel comes up right next to the wheat, it's almost indistinguishable between the two. You wouldn't be able to know which one is right, which one was the wheat and which one was the weed. The second thing is, I hate to say it, it was maybe not a common practice but certainly a known practice if you didn't like somebody else, if you wanted to get back at them or do something mean to them, then what you would do is, after they harvested their wheat, you'd sneak over there and you would spread a bunch of seeds of this darnel, of these weeds, in them, thus, causing all kinds of problems for the person. Because, first of all, you wouldn't be able to distinguish it. Second of all, when harvest time finally came up, it's going to take him, what, twice, three times, four times as long to harvest because he's going to have to separate the weeds from the wheat. It was so well known that Romans actually had a law prohibiting it and they specified punishment if you were caught spreading the weeds among the wheat.

So Jesus' people understand exactly what's going on here. Now the darnel weed is an unusual weed and that is, when it sinks its roots down into the ground, it just doesn't go straight down and mind its own business. No, no, no, no. It intertwines with the roots of any surrounding plant. Thus, the owner says, “Don't pull up the weeds because, if you do, you're going to pull up the wheat right along with them because the roots are intertwined.”

The other thing we need to know about darnel is it's poisonous. That means, if you harvest the darnel along with the wheat and if you make anything out of that, well, I pity the fool who has to eat some of that bread because it won't go well for them. Let's just say it won't be pleasant for the gastrointestinal tract. It just won't be good. Okay? So you can't do that. You have to separate the two. So darnel intertwines with the roots plus it's poisonous. Alright, well, good news there but what does that mean. I'm glad you asked because the disciples did, too. They said, “Alright, Jesus, that was interesting but we don't get it.” So Jesus says, “The one who sowed the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels.”

Here's the scenario. You can't harvest the weeds before the harvest. You can't weed the garden with darnel. You have to wait. You have to wait until the harvest time. So Jesus says the wheat seed that's been spread, that's spread by the son of God., in other words, Jesus has called us to faith and those who have been called to faith in Jesus who know them as their Lord and Savior, they're the sons of the kingdom. They're the wheat, if you will, that's in the world. But then the devil comes along. The devil comes along, the evil one, and he spreads all kinds of evil among the world, that is, the weeds that are in the world. So we are surrounded by these weeds. We are surrounded by, if you will, evil influences and evil forces but you can't tell the difference because they look identical to the weeds, at least at the early stages. You can't just pluck them out because you're liable to pull the wheat out. What it means is, this side of heaven, believers are going to still have to live in a sinful world and they're going to have to be surrounded by other sinful people and some of those sinful people will be working against you. So we are the wheat in the world that is surrounded by weeds, weeds that potentially could have a negative influence on us.

The first thing we need to recognize then is the danger, the dangerous situation we're in. We live in a sinful world and we live among other sinful people and not all of those people believe in Christ. Not all of those people are godly people. Therefore, their influence on us is an ungodly influence. They could pull us away from God. They could intertwine with our roots, if you will, and strangle us and take all of the nutrients out because the devil will do whatever it takes to pull you away from God. Whatever means are at his disposal, he'll use to extinguish your faith, certainly to stunt the growth of your faith. So we're the wheat that is living in a field of weeds and we're surrounded by weeds. The real danger here is for us to not take seriously the influence of others, for us to underestimate the influence other people have on our lives.

You know, for some reason, once we hit adulthood, it's really easy for us to look at children and to see how they're influenced by their friends. It's even easier for us to look at teenagers and to see how they're influenced by their friends. In fact, what parent hasn't looked at their teenage child and shook their head and said, “I just can't believe you're dressing that way. I don't care that all of your friends dress that way. Why would you want to dress that way? If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge, too?” Every parent has said something ridiculous like that. It's easy pickings for us as parents. We can look at the teenagers and say, “Boy, they just give into peer pressure all over the place.” But I wonder how many of our teens are looking at us and shaking their heads and saying, “I can't believe what they're doing. I can't believe the peer pressure they're giving into. I can't believe they have to keep up with the Joneses. I can't believe they have to drive a certain style car, they have to dress a certain way, they have to belong to this organization, they have to go to a party they don't even want to go to.” They can see it in us, that we are influenced by the people around us. Peer pressure isn't just for kids anymore. Peer pressure affects all of us. All of us are influenced by the people who surround us.

Small example. Innocent example I'll pick out. Let's say you go on a diet. You want to lose 15 pounds. Wouldn't mind doing that myself. So you're doing really well but then it's Friday night and you're going over to a good friend's birthday party. You walk in the door and, according to your eyes, all you see is chocolate cake. Everywhere there's chocolate cake. Every person at the party has chocolate cake and a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream right on it. And every time you turn around, the host is sticking another piece of cake in your lap saying, “Aren't you going to celebrate my birthday with me? You can have a piece of cake tonight, can't you?” How long are you going to last? 15 seconds it was for me. Now that's an innocent example.

There's a lot that isn't innocent. The real danger is for us to underestimate the influence of the people around us. So we need to recognize the danger, recognize the poison of the darnel and then we need to discern very carefully what's wheat and what's weeds. What are the good influences and what are the bad influences? When the owner's servants went out into the field, it could not have been immediately evident to them that there were weeds in the field. They had to take a close inspection because the two look so much alike. And only under close inspection could they distinguish that, ah, there are weeds among the wheat.

You and I have to do a close inspection of the people who are surrounding us, the people we associate with, the friends we have. Now here comes the tough part. Here comes the uncomfortable part. You have to take a look and ask yourself are the people who surround you a good influence or bad influence? Do they lead you in godly ways or do they lead you away from God?

Scripture helps us out there as far as how can we know, how can we distinguish what are going to be the good influences on us. 1 John 4 says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Now this is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” Those people in our lives that acknowledge Jesus as their Lord, that is, fellow Christians, fellow believers, they're from God, if you will, they're the positive influence on us. They're the good influence on us if they're leading us towards a more godly way of life. But if they're not, if they're not from God, John says then they come at things from a worldly point of view. So he says a few verses later, “They're from the world and, therefore, they speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them. But we are from God.” The world looks at life differently than us. They have a different viewpoint. They have a different world view. They just see things in a different light than a Christian does. Christians see the world in a new way because we've been given a new life in Christ. So the question is your friends, your acquaintances, do they come at life from a worldly point of view or from a Christian point of view? Do they influence you so you lead a godly life or do you find, when you're with them, you're doing questionable, at best, activities?

I know the objections in some of your minds, and the objection is, “Well, aren't we supposed to be a good influence? Didn't Jesus say we're the light on the hill that's supposed to shine forth into a dark world?” And most certainly He did and we are to be a positive influence on the world. Well, let me ask you this. When you brought home the one friend your mom didn't like and she had her objections and you countered back saying, “But, Mom, maybe I'm a good influence on him,” did she buy it? My mom didn't. Because it comes down to this. Who's influencing who? That's the tough question. Only you can answer it. Certainly, we are to be out in the world but we're not to be of the world. We're supposed to be among the unbelievers so they can see what life in Christ is like, but the hard question is, the difficult question is who is influencing who? Are you influencing them or are they influencing you? Are you looking at things from a worldly point of view or from a Christian point of view?

So first you recognize the danger. Second of all, you carefully discern what the influence is. And then you return to the fellowship of believers and you receive the love and the support that we need. This is the influence we need in our lives. It's each other. We need each other. We need to influence each other. We need to bond together and band together as fellow believers in Christ so we can encourage one another, be a strength for one another. We need to hold each other accountable. We need to remind each other of God's love and, when it's time, we need to remind each other of God's forgiveness and we need to spur each other on, as scripture says, so we can remain strong. A single stalk of wheat isn't going to last real long if it's surrounded by weeds but, if there's a cluster, the weeds don't have a chance. We need each other and we need to recognize the need we have for the fellowship of believers, the company and the community of Christ. Scripture attests to that. Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I'll be there also.” That means, when we gather together in Christ's name, He Himself is with us, giving us His power and His strength. The early church understood that. The early church, let's talk about a church, a group of people that were wheat in the middle of a lot of weeds. At best, there were, what, 4,000 Christians at that time at Pentecost? 3,000 had just come to faith. So let's say 4,000 Christians in the entire world. How did they survive that? How did they make it? This is how they made it. Acts 2, “They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” The way they survived was they had each other. They came together as the community of believers. They studied God's word together. They prayed together. They enjoyed the sacrament together. They also simply enjoyed each other's company. They were a positive influence on one another. They were a strengthening element so, certainly, they went back out in the middle of the weeds but they made sure they came back together, that home base.

The writer of Hebrews probably puts it the best way. Hebrews 10 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.” The writer of the Hebrews says we need each other. We spur one another on. We encourage one another so we can return back to the fellowship of believers and there gain strength, confidence, and boldness to know we're not alone in our way of thinking, that we're not alone in this world but there are fellow believers who are surrounding us, influencing us. Now we can go out amongst the weeds. Now we can influence them instead of the world influencing us. Because we live surrounded by weeds, we need to recognize it's a dangerous situation, to not underestimate how much we're influenced by others.

Pittsfield Town , Michigan , started with just one person, one person who noticed the glitch in the computer system. Not long after, that influence had gone out to over 100 people. And sure enough, it worked. They took their driver's license to the filling station. They ran it through and it took the magnetic code off their driver's license instead of a credit card. It also took with it every bit of information from that driver's license so the Pittsfield Town police were able to track down each and every one of them and gave them a choice, pay up or go to jail. There are consequences to the influences in our lives. We take it seriously, and we discern what are the positive influences and what are the negatives and we come back together as the fellowship of believers and we spur each other on and we encourage each other so we remain strong and faithful to our Lord. Amen.