Sermon Tone Analysis

I can’t believe that our Wild Goose Chase series is coming to an end!

But we have another elephant coming to NCC so I’m excited about where we’re headed.

If you have a Bible, turn over to I Samuel 14, we’ll get there in a few moments.

This weekend we are going to talk about the Cage of Fear.

A few years ago, two psychologists from the University of Michigan, William Gehring and Adrian Willoughby did a study published in Science Magazine.

Volunteers wore an electrode cap and they engaged in a computer simulated betting game and the electrode caps recorded changes in brain electrical activity in response to winning and losing.

With each bet the medial frontal cortex showed an increase in activity, but what intrigued researchers was this – they found that medial frontal negativity showed a larger dip after a loss than the rise in medial frontal positivity after a win.

Did you get that?

Still with me?

During a string of losses, medial frontal negativity dipped lower with each loss, so in essence, each loss was compounded by the previous loss.

The significance of that is this – neurologically speaking, losses loom larger than gains.

Or to put it another way, the aversion to loss of a certain magnitude is greater than the attraction to gain of the same magnitude.

I think that that neurological study has huge spiritual ramifications.

In fact, I wonder if that aversion to loss is why we fixate on sins of commission.

Don’t do this and don’t do that, but we often ignore sins of omission, what you would’ve, could’ve and should’ve done.

I wonder if that is why many of us approach the will of God so defensively, we have this better safe than sorry mentality, and I wonder if that’s why the church is often more known for what we’re against than what we are for, because we are playing defense instead of playing offense.

I would suggest that we need a paradigm shift.

We need to quit playing not to lose, we need to play to win.

We need to fear missed opportunities more than making mistakes and I think we need to stop playing defense and start playing offense.

That’s what this cage and this story is all about.

1 Samuel 14, but I want to pick up the last verse of 1 Samuel 13:22.

It says: The pass at Micmash had meanwhile been secured by a contingent of the Philistine army. 1 Samuel 14:1: One day Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come on, let’s go over to where the Philistines have their outpost.”

But Jonathan did not tell his father what he was doing.

I’m not sure of the significance of that but what I do love about that is that we are in a town where if anybody does anything, they call a press conference, and I like the fact that Jonathan is not talking about what he is doing, he just goes out and does it.

Verse 4: On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez, and the other Seneh.

One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the south toward Geba.

Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows.

Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.

We will come back to that statement and that’s where we are going to park this weekend.

Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf.

Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.” “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said.

“Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”

It is tough to psychoanalyze someone who lived thousands of years ago, but I think it is safe to say that Jonathan had a sanctified medial frontal cortex.

He did not let his fears dictate his decision.

His desire to advance the kingdom, so to speak, was greater than his fear of failure, and his attraction to gain was greater than his aversion to loss.

Jonathan was not playing defense.

He was playing offense.

He courageously climbed the cliffs at Micmash, picked a fight with the entire Philistine army, and I love the way that the New Living Translation captions this story.

It is called Jonathan’s Daring Plan.

Now, I’ll be honest, part of the reason why I love Jonathan’s Daring Plan is because it makes me feel better about my bad ideas.

This has to be the worst military strategy I’ve ever heard of.

If you read the next few verses, you discover that Jonathan’s plan is basically this.

Let’s expose ourselves to the enemy in broad daylight and concede the high ground.

Then he comes up with a sign.

Verse 9; “If the Philistines say to us, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.”

Ok, I’m sorry but if I’m making up the signs here, I’m doing the exact opposite.

If they come down to us, that’ll be our sign.

Or better yet, if they fall off the cliff, that’ll be the sign that the Lord is giving them into our hands.

But no, Jonathan’s plan is far more dangerous and difficult and daring than that.

Now, I’m going to be honest, I read this story and I’m not this courageous.

Is anybody else there with me?

I don’t see myself in this story, and it really hit home this week.

On Friday night, Parker celebrated a birthday and his big ask was that he wanted to go play airsoft, It’s basically kind of an indoor arena and essentially you shoot each other with BB guns, and I’m not really into getting shot, it is not my thing.

But I love my son and he wanted to play so we went.

We walked in and immediately I knew I was in trouble.

I’m wearing jeans but everybody else there has the full camouflage on, and there were some guys wearing bulletproof vests.

I was seriously scared, like what is gonna happen?

So we played some games, like you’ve played capture the flag, for example, but instead of tagging each other, you shoot each other, and when you get shot, you have to put your arm up in the air after you get shot so that you don’t continue to get shot and then you go back to your base, and we played where you count to 20 and then you get to get back in and you get shot again.

I’m embarrassed to admit this but I faked getting shot several times so that I wouldn’t actually get shot!

I would hear gunfire and my arm would go up and I kid you not, I would go back and count to 20 very slowly.

So I’m in the airsoft arena and I’m having these thoughts and it was sort of surreal and like I’m thinking to myself, if I was in this actual battle situation, would I be the guy who would fake being dead?

The lack of courage was astounding to me.

I tried to muster up a little bit of courage, so at some point in the game I got my young son and one of his friends and I gotta do something, so I went out and had one courageous maneuver, got shot in the chest, yes, it’s black and blue, so what I did the rest of the night is, I would say to everybody, “Let me cover you,” which is another way of saying, “You go ahead and get shot and I’ll watch.”

That experience helps me appreciate this verse, because this is a real scenario, they are using real bullets, he is outnumbered, he is outgunned, the courage it took for him to climb this cliff.

So here is the $64,000 question – what motivated Jonathan to climb this cliff?

What gave him the courage to go on the offensive and how did he know it was God’s will?

I think it is impossible to know exactly what thoughts were firing across his synapses but this verse does reveal Jonathan’s gestalt.

Everybody say it.

Doesn’t that feel good?

It just rolls off the tongue, just so you don’t think I’m real smart, I had to go on an audio dictionary to make sure I was pronouncing it the right way.

It is a mindset, a paradigm and it is captured in verse 6, do not overlook this, do not underestimate this.

Here is what Jonathan says to his armor-bearer: Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf.

I love this modus operandi.

Now let me state a personal conviction.

I think what is most lacking in the church is not education.

Let’s keep learning but we are all educated beyond the level of our obedience.

And I don’t think what’s most lacking is resources.

Let’s keep giving, but we are the most resourced church in the most resourced country the world has ever known.

You want to know what I think is the most lacking?

Guts.

Good old-fashioned guts, to live mb faith, to climb the cliff, to engage the enemy and to realize that we are involved in something that is a matter of life or death and that we are called to live courageously, even dangerously for the cause of Christ.

Now, the good news is, I don’t think in most scenarios, our lives are on the line.

But passivity is not an option, and I think God is calling us to play offense, and this story inspires me to no end.

It tells me that the will of God is not an insurance plan, it is a daring plan.

I think more often than not, the will of God will involve a daring decision, a difficult decision, sometimes a dangerous decision that might even seem unsafe and insane if you don’t know how someone is processing it and the fact that the Wild Goose has prompted them to do it, you are going to think they are crazy.

I’m watching Jonathan climb this cliff and I don’t know how it is going to turn out, I say he is crazy.

Crazy.

But look at what happens, one daring decision was enough to shift the momentum, create a tipping point.

I Samuel 13:23 says: So the Lord saved Israel that day.

Because one person made one move.

One person did one thing that made a difference.

Can I suggest that the church needs more daring people with daring plans?

I like the way that the 20th century missionary C. T. Studd said it.

He said, “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”

The church needs more Studds, and you can quote me on that.

When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things?

Where did we get that?

I think we made a false assumption about the will of God.

I think we’ve assumed that it should get easier the longer we follow Christ.

I want to suggest that some dimensions do get easier the more you practice spiritual disciplines, it is easier for me to tithe now than it was in the beginning.