Sermon Tone Analysis

THE CHAOS OF TOO MANY CANARIES

Today I want to begin with a story that's been around for a while — maybe I've told it here before — but it's a great story and it feels like it was custom-made for today's message.

The story goes that a man was driving down the road behind a large truck, and began to notice something strange.

At every stoplight the truck driver jumped out of the cab and pounded the side of the truck with a baseball bat, then jumped back in the truck and took off.

After seeing this happen at 5 or 6 lights, the man's curiosity got the best of him.

At the next light, he jumped out of his car and ran up to the driver who was furiously pounding his truck.

He said, "Hey fella, can I ask you what you're doing?"

The driver said, "It's like this.

I have a one ton truck and two tons of canaries in the cargo container.

That means I have to keep a ton of birds in the air at all times or this truck won't move."

Have you ever felt that way — like you had more canaries than you could carry?

I certainly have, and every pastor I know, every business person I know, every mother and father that I know, every student that I have ever known has felt this way: I've got so much content in the cargo container of my life that sometimes I'm just too weighed down to move forward.

If you've ever felt this way, I want you to know that you're not alone.

Today I want to talk to you a little bit about the too-many-canaries syndrome, and how to deal with it.

We're in our third week of a series called Immovable.

It's about learning to stand your ground in a culture of chaos.

In week one we talked about dealing with the chaos that we tend to create for ourselves, both through sinful willfulness and through misguided and unwise decisions.

We talked about the need to confront the chaos head on: asking the right questions and listening to the right people and taking the right steps in follow-up.

Last week we talked about dealing with the chaos we encounter in the world around us: that even when things happen outside our realm of influence and control, we need to acknowledge that God is ultimately in control of even the most out of control situations — and we need to confront the chaos by taking charge of those areas in which we can take charge, and doing our part in making things right — even when we feel like the problem is bigger than we are.

Today we'll look at the chaos of too much cargo.

I'm talking about the chaos of a full plate — the chaos you experience when day-in and day-out you have more to do than can possibly get done, and the list keeps growing ... exponentially.

Have you ever been there?

Every day you have time to do six big things, and every day 10 big things get added to the list.

It's not only stressful, it's extremely frustrating — because it means that important matters aren't being tended to.

Today we'll look at a story that takes place in the early days of the church.

Literally, in the first year or so of the church's existence.

It was a brand new organization, filled with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, and God was moving among the people every day ... every day numbers were being added to the community of faith ... every day people were coming to Christ ... every day urgent needs and matters of importance were being presented to the leaders that required their attention now ... and it was up to the apostles to find a way to get things in order.

God was behind all this growth, but as I mentioned last week, it is wrong for us to expect for God to gift-wrap all the details and deliver them on our doorstop with a pretty bow tied around the box.

When we're faced with a challenge, we're expected to do our part.

We can't just say, "Let God handle it," because his response will be, in effect: No, you handle it.

I'm filling your life with all these blessings and opportunities, and it's up to you to manage them well.

Here's the story.

Since the Day of Pentecost, the church had exploded with growth, and as part of their outreach to the community, they had set up a system of the daily distribution of food to those who were in need.

This is our heritage: from the very beginning the church has been involved in the ministry of compassion.

From the very beginning we have been looking out for the needs of others.

It's a habit we inherited from our Jewish forefathers in faith.

As William Barclay says, "No nation has ever had a greater sense of responsibility for the less fortunate brethren than the Jews."

Even in ancient times, each Jewish synagogue had the custom of collecting money and food from those in the market place and from private individuals, and these resources were distributed to those in need and to those who were unable to care for themselves.

The early church continued this custom.

However, because of the rapid growth and the cross-cultural makeup of the Christian church, some problems soon surfaced.

At this time, most of the believers in the early church were Jews.

They fell into one of two categories.

There were the local Palestinian Jews who still spoke Aramaic, and there were also Greek speaking Jews — those who had converted to Judaism or those who had come from foreign countries and no longer spoke the ancestral language.

This second group was often considered a lesser-class of Jew, and so in today's story it comes up that some of them complained about being overlooked in the daily distribution.

There's the context.

Now, let's read the story from Acts.

1 But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent.

The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.

2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.

They said, "We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program.

3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom.

We will give them this responsibility.

4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word."

5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith).

6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

7 So God's message continued to spread.

The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.

In this story we see how the apostles took control of a situation that was on the verge of getting out of hand, and they took some very simple, practical steps that would enable them to deal with the demands of a growing ministry.

When they heard that there were issues with the daily distribution of food, they said, in effect, "This is a matter that needs to be resolved, but this represents more canaries than we have the capacity to carry.

So let's re-assess our priorities, let's rethink our strategy for getting things done, and let's recruit qualified people to help us do it."

And that's what they did.

Now, if you're dealing today with the tyranny of a full plate, and you currently have more cargo than you carry, I want you to know that this is a good thing — at least, most of the time.

Being busy is good, when you're busy with the right things.

Being busy is good, because it means that doors are opening and opportunities are available.

I have a friend who started his own consulting business a while back — and he spent weeks waiting for the first customer and months waiting for the next customer, and at one point he said, "What I wouldn't give to have too much work to do.

I'm tired of doing nothing."

Fortunately, most of us have the opposite problem: more opportunities than we have time to pursue, more canaries than we have the capacity to carry.

Some see the solution to this problem as: I need less canaries.

I need less on my plate.

However, those who learn to stand strong in a culture of chaos will say instead: I don't want less cargo; I want a bigger cargo container.

I don't want less on my plate, I want a bigger plate.

If this is you, then today I want to suggest three things that you can do that will help you increase your capacity to get things done.

If you're in the middle of the chaos that comes with having too many canaries, there are three things you need to keep an eye out for.

First of all, you need to...

1. Keep an eye out for uncovered bases.

This situation between the Hebraic Jews and the Grecian Jews — it was an uncovered base.

It was something slipping through the cracks.

It was a serious matter that had been overlooked and could be overlooked no more.

The apostles could have dismissed the complaint, saying something along the lines of, "No matter what you do, somebody's going to find something to gripe about."

They could have said that because it's kind of true.

People are going to complain, even when their complaint has no validity.

However, strong leaders — wise leaders — can discern the difference between frivolous whining and a genuine problem that needs to be resolved.

There are many leaders out there who would not respond the way the apostles responded.

Their response would be, instead, to turn a deaf ear to what the people are saying.

Their response would be to tell the Hellenistic Jews to stop making such a big deal out of nothing, to stop being so negative and divisive.

And in doing so they would have lost a great opportunity for ministry.

Just because you're busy — just because you've got a lot on your plate — doesn't give you permission to ignore the needs of others, or to ignore problematic situations.

That's what ineffective leaders do.

You show me a business that's no longer in business, and I'll show you a group of leaders who paid no attention to uncovered bases.

You show me a church that's on the verge of closing its doors, and I'll show you a church that has turned a deaf ear to the needs of its community.

There are many people who think: If I ignore this problem long enough, it will go away.

If I just leave this door open, some of these canaries will fly away and I won't have to deal with them any more.

That's not the way to develop strength in the midst of chaos.

That's the easy way out, not the immovableway out.

It may sound like I'm heaping more stress on you when you're already stretched to the limit ... but I'm not.

So stay with me.

But I want you to understand, first, that no matter how hectic things may be, you still need to keep an eye out for uncovered bases, you still need to keep an eye out for unmet needs, you still need to keep an eye out for opportunities that God is bringing your way.

This situation between the Greek-speaking Jews and the Aramaic-speaking Jews was really an opportunity in disguise — an opportunity to increase the church's effectiveness in serving others, and an opportunity to create a whole new ministry option for dedicated believers.

The apostles chose seven men and appointed them as deacons: servants of the church.

They came up with this plan because of the second thing I want you to see today.