This is the text I used for the sermon I delivered Sunday May 15, 2011. I realize I have been a bit lax lately in posting and need to improve on that, so here is something to think on while I try to catch up on things.
“Life is for one generation; a good name is forever.” Japanese Proverb
As Christians, we are committed to a relationship with God. As part of our holiness we emphasize the joy of living holy lives before God’s eyes. Three centuries after the birth of John Wesley in 1703, his influences on Christians though his teachings on the doctrine of holiness and entire sanctification can still be seen. For those Christians who follow these teachings holiness means loving both God and your neighbors wholeheartedly. This happens when Christians willingly submit and devote their entire being to God. To do this we need to develop a set of priorities for life rooted in a lifestyle of true holiness.
Too often young Christians, and by this I mean new believers, are only getting half of the message of salvation. They are encouraged to confess their sins, be born again, and then they graduate into a “sin management” program of one sort or another. In almost every church in the nation you can find a program designed to help people recognize the most overt sins and a 1-2-3 program to avoid and manage these sins. We often hear the motto, “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven.” The emphasis is on constantly seeking forgiveness. And while forgiveness is a crucial part of the Christian life, it is not the only thing in a Christian life.
The message of holiness calls each Christian to a radical restructuring of life. The message of holiness is that every aspect of life can and should come under the Lordship of Christ. We don’t just cope with sin, we gain a victory over it. The motto above only tells half the story: Christians do experience forgiveness, but they also perfectly love God and their neighbors. This is the promise of the New Testament.
New believers can become confused by the variety of messages they hear. They desire something that will make a profound difference in their lives and the world. They are not overly impressed with the quick fix; they want more than a plan for coping with the struggles of life. Only a healthy relationship with God through Jesus can help them set their priorities straight. When they devote themselves fully to Christ, He will help them put their live together and organize their priorities so they can use their money, time, and talents in ways that are ultimately meaningful and pleasing to God and themselves.
Someone once said, “The great purpose of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.” God’s work says a lot about what we do with our time, money, and gifts. Our lives are worth more than what any job will pay, which college we attend, or who will befriend us. Our purpose is to live beyond ourselves as Christ did.
Reactions are occurring all around us. If you hit a baseball with a bat the energy travels from the bat to the ball. But not all reactions are visible. It can often appear that nothing is happening, when in truth great things are taking place.
(Hold up a can of soda)
Take this pop for instance, right now it looks like there is nothing happening, but what if I was to shake it up? (Shake the soda) It still looks the same, but there is something amazing going on inside of the can. This is the affect accepting Christ can have on many of us. Our lives have been shaken up, and while there are great things happening inside, if we don’t chose to show the change, people will never know.
Once Christ is in our lives (shake soda again) we have to decide what we will do. Will we keep all of the energy and excitement bottled up, or will we let it out. The problem can be deciding how and where to release this energy.
In the OT we read the story of Hannah. Hannah was childless, and had been in great distress for many years. Finally she cried out to God, asking for a child with the promise that the child would be dedicated to the Lord. God answered her prayers and gave Hannah a son, Samuel. When he was a young boy Hannah presented Samuel at the Temple to fulfill her promise to God. When Samuel was around 12 God called to him in the night and Samuel answered.
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. 6 Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8 A third time the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 11 And the LORD said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God,[a] and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”
15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.” Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 17 “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.”
Not only did he answer but he did what God asked of him, regardless of how difficult it may have been.
The story of Samuel is important because it helps us to understand that we, as Christians, will often be called upon by God to leave our comfort zone and do the difficult and thankless tasks that he wants us to do; to lead meaningful lives in the eyes of Christ.
When we look at where our priorities should be we have to look at the needs of those around us. In bigger cities, and even here in our own small town, we have a homeless problem. We often like to pretend that homelessness is a big city issue; it isn’t something we need to worry about. New reports are filled with stories of growing health-care costs, chronic illness, and crime. These are the outcasts of society, the sick, the poor, the criminals, and the homeless. They exist in every society, and every society tries to ignore them. Our world contains an every growing number of people who fall into these categories. Regardless of where we live, we see these outcasts every day. The cruel in society ridicule and make fun of them because they may not smell good, wear the right clothes, or have physical or mental disabilities. They don’t look or act like everyone else. They are “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40).
As Christians we need to ask ourselves, “What should we be doing for these people? Why should we help the despised and forgotten of our society?”
God’s answer to these questions is clear in many places in Scripture. In Exodus 3:7-8 we read:
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
God not only notices people’s suffering, he does something about it. God’s concern for the oppressed is evident in Jesus’ teachings. Jesus proclaimed, “He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Matthew 25:31-46 says:
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
This important passage comes at the climax of several passages concerning the end times. Jesus has told the people of the coming of the kingdom of God and the judgment that it will include.
In this passage , the separation of the sheep and goats-the righteous from the unrighteous-is based on one thing and one thing only, their care or lack of care for those less fortunate, the poor, hungry, sick, and imprisoned. Those who care for those who are outcasts in society will inherit the Kingdom, and the who do not will be told to leave the sight of God and go into the fire prepared for the devil.
This passage is more than a simple do this and go to heaven. The deeper theme is that God is consistently concerned for the outcasts of society. Throughout the story of Israel in the OT, and continuing through the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles, God cares for this downtrodden and weak. God cared so much for the social outcasts that He became one Himself! 2 Corinthians tells us, “that though he was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” This identifying with the oppressed is what Jesus means when He says, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.”
If Jesus cared so much for the oppressed then those who would call themselves Christians should be concerned about the oppressed as well. Ministering to the oppressed is not something we do to make sure our ticket to Heaven is stamped; it is something we should do to grow in our Christian life. Many people in the modern church feel that by supporting missionaries they have done their part for the oppressed. They will listen to their missions coordinator present what the churches missionaries are doing, hear the call for aid, and put their offering in the plate as it goes by, and when they leave church and go home they feel they have followed Jesus’ command as they walk past the homeless man begging for food on the steps of their church.
John Wesley had a great interest in the poor and spoke often on the subject of reaching out to those in need. “One reason the rich have so little sympathy for the poor,” he said, “is because they seldom visit them. Many of them do not know because they do not care to know.”
As you leave today think about this;
• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness…you are more blessed than the 1 million people who will not survive this week.
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation…you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep…you are richer than 75% of the world.
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change somewhere…you are in the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.
The truth of the matter is, as bad as we think we have it, those of us sitting in the room are among the riches in the world. Most of the world would consider the poorest person here to be rich.
