14
The Adjustment Bureau
November 13th, 2011
Although 92% of Americans believe in God, as you can imagine, what we actually believe about God is quite different.
- In other words, if there is a God, than, is He active in our lives or does He just make a few cameo appearances from time to time?
- Is He the kind of God we can have a connection with… or one that, at best, we can appreciate from afar?
Is He the kind of God who simply set the world in motion and left the rest up to us…
- Or the kind of God that is orchestrating all the events on earth according to His purposes… or something in between?
- Well, the movie we’re going to be looking at this morning takes a crack at answering some of these questions.
- In fact, The Adjustment Bureau was written around these questions concerning life, fate, destiny, and God’s will.
But, on a more practical level, the movie interacts with a few questions we’ve all asked ourselves at one time or another.
- And that is, does God have a specific will or plan for my life, and, if so, how can I know it.
- So, let me ask you… how many of you are in a place in your life or coming to that place of having to make a pretty significant decision? Career decision?
- Relationship? Financial decision/big purchase? Something that could impact a whole season if not the rest of your life?
Well, over the years, I’ve seen Jesus-followers employ all different approaches to determining God’s will.
- There’s the ol’ Finger-in-the Bible approach, for example.
- One person looking to buy a new car used this approach in order to decide which compact car he should purchase.
- Basically, he opened the Bible and landed in Philippians 2:2, which says, “Make my joy complete, be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord.”
- So, he what did he do? Yes, he bought a Honda Accord!
A bride planning her wedding used this approach to determine which verse from the Bible they would have the baker print on their wedding cake.
- Truth is, it sort of worked for her this time, because she landed in 1 John 4:18, which says “There is no fear in love; for perfect love casts out all fear.”
- The problem is that the baker misunderstood and engraved John 4:18 in their cake, which says
- "For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband."
Then there’s the Open Door Approach, which looks at all viable opportunities as coming from God.
- Maybe you were at the supermarket eating a chocolate bar and when you turned around,
- you accidently collided with a woman eating some peanut-butter. It was a relationship made in heaven.
Well, as much as the relationship between chocolate and peanut-butter may have been made in heaven, it doesn’t automatically mean the relationship was!
- In fact, there are at least an equal number of times when what seems most obvious is the last door God would want you to walk through.
- In fact, God may be calling you to find your way through a closed door.
Another related approach to discerning God’s will is the Pain-Level Approach, which has to do with whether something is difficult or not.
- Now, the thing about this one is that you could go off on either direction.
- For some people, the harder, the messier, the more sacrifice something requires, the more you can be assured that God is behind it.
And, honestly, what’s behind that is a pretty punitive view of God rather than a God who has a plan “to prosper you and give you hope,” as the Bible says.
- But what I’ve seen far more of is the idea that God is only behind those things that are easy or simple.
- “God seemed to call me to minister to teens, I always found it a bit challenging… and decided that He wasn’t in it.”
- “God seemed to put it on my heart to go to this home group… but the drive is a bit inconvenient. I must’ve got it wrong.”
Another way we might try and discern God’s will is the old Give-me-a-sign approach.
- God, if you really want me to forgive and be kind to my boss the way Your Word says I should, then,
- even though it’s still October, let it snow 13 inches! (one of you prayed that a few weeks ago!)
You see, as much as God may give you some sort of “Sign” to help you discern what He’s doing or what He’s calling you to, at times,
- we can use the “give-me-a-sign” approach as a way of avoiding what we already know God is calling us to.
- So, how does all of this fit into the Adjustment Bureau?
- Well, as I said, the movie raises some really interesting questions about God’s will and how it affects our lives.
The main character is an up coming young congressman in New York named David Norris, played by Matt Damon, who’s running for Senate.
- In fact, it looks as though he’s got the Senate seat in the bag till he makes a wrong move late in the game that costs him the election.
- So, on election night, with things looking really bad, David goes into the bathroom to practice his concession speech.
But while in there, he accidently meets a young woman named Elise (Emily Blunt) who was hiding from security guards for crashing a high-end wedding.
- Their brief encounter causes David to rethink what he was going to say…
- replacing all the typical political rhetoric with the kind of heartfelt stuff that really connect him with the people… setting him for a win in the next election.
Of course, David can’t get Elise out of his mind… and would love to see her again. The problem is that NYC is a big place…
- Not the kind of place where you’re just going to “bump” into someone.
- But, one day, while taking his regular bus to his office, there she is… just sitting there!
- The problem is that he was never supposed to see her again. And, this is where the movie takes its interesting turn.
What we discover is that there are men called “adjusters” whose job is to ensure that certain things “happen” or don’t happen in our lives.
- But one of these adjusters, named Harry, messed up this one particular morning.
- You see, he was supposed to make sure that David spilt his coffee so that he’d have to go back and change his shirt and miss the bus he normally take to work.
- But, because he didn’t spill his coffee, David was able to get on the same bus Elise was on… and gets Elise’s phone #.
CLIP #1: Spilt Coffee
Well, as you can imagine, after seeing each other on the bus, David and Elise totally reconnected.
- Right after that, when he got to work, excited about getting together with Elise, his life turned completely upside down.
- You see, when he got there, he saw all these “adjusters” working to undo the damage created by his reconnecting with Elise.
- Turns out, these “adjusters” in the movie are sort of like angels whose job is to make sure that people
- live their lives according to the blueprint that the “Chairman” designs for each of us as human beings.
The problem is that they’re supposed to do their “adjusting” behind the scenes. David was never supposed to see what they were doing.
- So, Harry’s boss, a guy named Richardson, catches David and brings him to a warehouse where he explains a little of what’s going on.
- He tells David that “You’ve just seen behind a curtain you weren’t supposed to know existed.”
- Let me show a clip from David’s first meeting with Richardson…
CLIP #2: David Meets the Adjusters
So, they’ve basically threatened David… that if he ever tells anybody what he’s seen… or if he ever tries to reconnect with Elise,
- then they’ll call in the big guns for an intervention, where they’ll basically erase his memories.
- And yet, with their having taken Elise’s phone number from him, David ends up, for the next three years, getting on the same bus, hoping that he’ll see her again.
- And, eventually, he does… and, from that time on, the movie is mostly about their trying to stay together while the Adjusters are doing all they can to keep them apart.
And because he’s Matt Damon, alias Jason Bourne, this politician is always able to stay one or two steps ahead of the Chairman, aka God.
- So, then the heavy hitter named Thompson is sent to lead the intervention team that will erase Norris’ memory so he’ll never seek Elise out again.
- And when they first meet, David finds out that his life has been designed with a bigger purpose than he’s understood.
CLIP #3: David and Thompson.
Seeing how the Adjusters are trying to shape this life, David asks Thompson, “What ever happened to free will?”
- I love his response… “You don’t have free will… you have the appearance of free will.”
- So, David asks, “Why couldn’t I be with Elise?” And we learn that Elise’s only role in David’s life was to inspire him to make that speech… but that’s it.
- You see, the “plan” the Chairman created for David’s life is for him to eventually become President.
But with Elise in his life, that wouldn’t happen. In fact, not only would David not become president,
- but Elise would never become the famous dancer she was meant to be.
- Of course, all of this raises some of the big questions humanity has been asking for ages…
- And that is whether or not God does, in fact, have one specific set of blueprints already designed for each of our lives.
Whether you were, for example, designed to be born exactly where you were born…
- whether you were meant to go to the college you went to (Supposed to go to RIT, but went to UoD instead)
- Whether you were designed to work where you’re working right now and nowhere else.
- You see, according to the movie, whenever we deviate from the “Chairman’s” blueprint, than everything else that follows is second-best or worse.
Truth is, a lot of people believe this… that if we make the wrong choices… even when neither choice is implicitly wrong…
- then we can forever mess up God’s plan for our lives.
- So, the question becomes even more important then… “How can I determine God’s will?”
“I’ve got two possibilities for a job, which one is the right one and which is the wrong one?”
- And, the pressure’s on, because, to one degree or another, you’re concerned that if you don’t get it exactly right,
- then you’re in trouble… that your life will always be less than God’s best.
The problem is that whenever we’re looking at “what’s God’s will”, we’re typically asking the “who, what, when, and where” kind of questions.
- Who should I be with? Where should I live? What job should I take? etc.
- Now, that doesn’t mean that God isn’t interested in those things or in the choices we make concerning all that.
- But rather, I think we’ve gotten off balance a bit… focusing on the “who, what, where, when” questions…
- Instead of the “why how” questions.
So, rather than focusing on whether God would want you to take one particular job over another,
- perhaps the question He’d rather you ask is, “Why are you interested in either of these job?”
- Or, “How would this job open doors in my life to love and bless those I’m working with?”
- You see, more often than not, God is wanting us to focus more on the why/how questions, rather than the who, what, where, when.
And the reason for that is because God is far more interested in the kind of person you’re becoming
- than all the specifics such as “what job” or “what person” or “where should I live” and so on.
- Now, again, that doesn’t mean He’s not interested in those things… or that He wont ever specifically call us to one thing over another.
- But, when it comes to discerning His will and purposes, I do believe that we’ve gotten a little off balance in our approach.
For example… 1 Thessalonians 4 says, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” That we should grow & mature as Jesus followers.
- You see, when we think of God’s will, we tend to focus on who, what, where, and when…
- But, God’s will is so much more about the type of person you are… and, even more so, the kind of person you’re becoming.
- Again, that doesn’t mean that He’s not interested in who you marry, for example… that’s a huge deal.
But, at the end of the day, He’s interested in who you are and who you’re becoming.
- And so, more than the “who,” “Should I marry this person,” we should look at the “how”…
- “How will our being together make us more devoted followers of Jesus?”
- “How will our being together help us to fulfill to calling God has placed in each of our lives?”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; Give thanks in all things, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
- What is God’s will for you? Should I be here or there? Should I be with this person or that person? Should I take this job or that job?