Sunday, February 27, 2011

2-27-11 Sermon

Click here to listen to this week's sermon. See below for a transcript of the sermon. May God speak to you as you listen/read Pastor Billman's sermon this week.


MEETING THE JESUS I KNOW
Set for Life
Part 1 of 3  02-27-11 Sermon


We’re starting a new mini-series today, a series called “Fit for Life”.  We’re going to be talking in this series about how we can become fit for life as God intended us to live.  I think we do that by addressing the most pressing issues of our past, our present and our future.  Today we’re going to deal with the present.  How we can know the God who offers us love like no other.  How we can know the God who offers mercy and grace.

Next week we’re going to talk about our past, how we can deal with regrets from our past.  Even though God may have forgiven us from things we have done, how can we deal with the regrets that still gnaw at us?

Then the third week we’re going to look at our future.  How can we live the way that God intended? 

That’s sort of the roadmap for the next three weeks that we’re going to embark upon today.  I want to start out by asking, have you ever heard the expression “Something got lost in the translation.”?  Well, there are now computer programs that are designed to translate from one language to another.  You type in English phrases and words and it translates them into another language.  So, some guy got a bright idea.  He decided to take the song “Take me out to the Ballgame” and type it in English into the translation device and translate it into German and then translate it back into English to see how close he came.  This is how it came out. 

Execute me to the ball play.
Execute me with the masses
Buy me certain fruit and ground nuts
I'm not interested if I ever receive back
Let me root, root, root for the main team
If they do not win it is dishonor
For it is one, two, three impacts on you
Out at the old ball play.

Don’t you think something got lost in the translation!

I think that’s true when you’re talking about Jesus as well.  Something gets lost sometimes in translation.  I'm not talking about the actual text of the New Testament that talks about Jesus.  I'm talking about how people interpret Him and reinterpret Him and change who He is.  Sometimes through the centuries the image we have of Jesus gets translated into something that doesn’t bear a lot of resemblance to who He really is and how we can know Him. 

What I want to do today is share some simple things about the Jesus I’ve known for over 40 years.  I didn’t put an outline in your programs today.  I did that on purpose.  I did put the verses I'm going to talk about so you can take those home with you and look at them later.  But I didn’t put an outline for a real important reason.  I just want you to listen today.  I don’t want you taking notes.  As wonderful as that is.  It’s great to learn with our minds.  I want you to learn today with your heart. 

I want to tell you three true stories that will illuminate different aspects of who Jesus is and different aspects of the grace, love, forgiveness, mercy and compassion that Jesus offers to us.  They are three true stories.

First story I have to tell is a sad story, actually.  It’s a story about a woman in Korea right after the Korean War took place.  This woman had gotten pregnant by an American soldier.  The soldier went back to the United States and she never saw him again.  She gave birth to a little girl.  But this little girl was very different than the other little girls.  Her hair was light colored and curly so she stood out.  In that particular culture that meant that child and the mother would be severely rejected by society.  In fact some mothers in Korea who gave birth to children from American fathers actually killed their babies because they couldn’t stand the humiliation, the rejection, the heartache of the way they were treated by other people.  This woman kept her baby and she tried her best to raise this child for seven years.  But the rejection and the humiliation and the taunting and the harassment that she experienced was too much for her.  So she did something nobody here could imagine anybody doing.  She abandoned that seven-year-old girl to the streets.  That little girl wasn’t alone because there were packs of little children living on the streets.  They would live under bridges and in abandoned buildings and they would go outside of town and live in caves.  And they would just eat whatever they could find. 

This little girl was ruthlessly taunted by everybody she would encounter.  They would call her the ugliest word in the Korean language.  The word that means “Alien devil”.  After a while this little girl began to draw conclusions about herself.  This is what she would say years later, “When you hear what you are as a little child day after day after day you begin to believe that about yourself.  I believed that anyone could do whatever they wanted to me physically because I wasn’t a person.  I was inhuman.  I was dirty.  I was unclean.  I had no name.  I had no identity.  I had no family.  I had no future.  And I hated myself.”

For two years she lived on the streets.  Finally there was a new orphanage that opened up.  It had very little money.  It was a very primitive kind of place but at least it was safe and it was a place she could go and not be assaulted and attacked and harassed.  So they took her into the orphanage.  Pretty soon word came that a couple from America was going to come to that orphanage and they were going to adopt a little baby boy.  The word went out among all the orphans in the orphanage.  This was the best news of all.  Some little boy among them was going to have a fresh start, a new chance, a future.  Somebody was going to escape from this orphanage.  So this little girl, who was now nine years old and who was the oldest child in the orphanage, began to bathe the little boys and clean them up and get them all ready wondering who was it that this American couple was going to choose and adopt and take back to America.

The next week this American man and his wife came.  This is what the girl recalled:  “It was like Goliath had come back to life.  I saw that man with his huge hands lift up each baby and I knew he loved every one of them as if they were his own.  I saw tears running down his face and I knew if they could they would have taken the whole lot.  Then he saw me out of the corner of his eye.  I was nine years old but I didn’t even weigh thirty pounds.  I was a scrawny thing.  I had worms in my body, lice in my hair, boils all over me and I was full of scars.  I wasn’t a pretty sight.  But the man came over to me and he rattled off something in English and I looked up at him.  And then he took this huge hand of his and he laid it on my face.  What was he saying?  He was saying, ‘I want this child.  This is the child who I want’.”

This is a picture of the Jesus I know.  Do you want to know what Jesus is like?  That’s Him.  The Jesus I know is one who peers beneath this ugliness of our spirit.  He’s the one who peers underneath the scars of our sin and He’s the one who’s able to look down to the very core of who we are to people made in the image of God Almighty.  And He wants to just take your face and cup it in His strong but gentle hands and He wants to look you in the eye and He wants to say to you, “I want this child.  This is the child I want.  I’ve been waiting from the foundation of the world for this moment to hold this face in my hands.  Because this is the child for Me.”  That’s the Jesus I know.

Jesus knows all about your stuff, your issues.  He sees it all.  He’s aware of it all.  He knows every secret you have.  He knows every sin you’ve ever committed.  Even still He wants to cup your face in His hands and look in your eyes and say, “I want this child.  This is the child I want to adopt.”  Because Jesus doesn’t see us the way we see ourselves.  And Jesus doesn’t see us the way other people see us.  Jesus sees us through heaven’s eyes.  And that’s a very different thing. 

That’s how God sees us.  As Peg sang for us, In heaven’s eyes there are no losersThere’s no hopeless cause.  Jesus said I want to adopt you to be My son, to be My daughter forever.  And if you ask me about the Jesus I know the first thing I would say to you is that’s how much He loves you.  That’s how much He cares for you to want to adopt you forever.

Then an incredible thing happened with that little nine-year-old Korean girl.  An amazing thing happened at that moment.  As that man was reaching out to her, “The hand on my face felt so good and inside I said, ‘Keep that up, don’t let your hand go.’  But nobody had ever showed that kind of affection to me before and I didn’t know how to respond.”  She said, “I yanked his hand off my face and I looked up at him and I spit at him and then I ran away.”  

Can you imagine that?  Here’s her window of opportunity.  Here’s her future.  Here’s hope and what does she do?  How does she respond?  She spits at him and she runs away. 

Haven’t we all done it to God?  Has there ever been a time in your life when you’ve felt spiritually open, when you felt like God was calling out to you, felt like you had such a huge desire to know this God who loves as no other?  What did you do then?  What happened? 

Maybe it was a Sunday School teacher.  You were a little kid and your parents took you to church and there was a Sunday School teacher you really liked and they liked you and they told you about Jesus.  It was a warm picture they painted about Jesus.  You were attracted to that Jesus.  Then what happened?  You got a little older and went to high school and it wasn’t cool to be a Christian and you sort of let the whole thing fade away. 

Or maybe you were getting married and the minister was talking about building your marriage around Jesus Christ.  It sounded like it made so much sense.  Something inside you said, “I want that.  I want to start over.  I want a firm foundation on God as I start this marriage.”  But then in the hectic, harried experience of the wedding and the honeymoon and the new house and all this stuff, you sort of lost the emotion.

Maybe you had a marital problem or a problem with your kids or a problem with a spouse, a financial issue, a medical issue or whatever it was and you were desperate at that moment and you called out to God, “I need to know You.  I want to know You,” and you made promises to Him.  “If You’ll come through for me, I’ll do ‘this’ ‘that’ and ‘the other’ for You.”  Then the crisis past and you forgot about the promises and you went on in life as always.

Let me tell you something else about this Jesus I know.  When you shut that window of opportunity, it was open and you let it shut, the amazing thing about the Jesus I know is that American couple at that orphanage.  The next day they came back to the orphanage.  And because they understood what was behind that little girl’s hurt and they understood the trauma she had gone through and all these things she had suffered, they understood all that and in spite of her initial rejection of them, they looked at all the children in the orphanage and they went back to that little girl, the one who spit in their eye, and they said, “We still want this child.”  And they adopted her.  They cleaned her up and they got her the medical attention that she needed.  They raised that child like she was their own.  She’s married today and she’s a follower of Jesus Christ.

The thing about the Jesus I know is you may have turned your back on Him.  You may have even spit in His eye.  But the Jesus I know is still there.  The Jesus I know has not turned His back on you.  Even though you’ve turned your back on Him the important thing to understand is He’s there. 

Maybe there’s something inside of you saying, “I want to know Jesus.  I want to meet Him.  I want to experience Him.”  If that is true in you then don’t let that window of opportunity shut.  Pursue God.  The truth of the matter is He’s already pursuing you.  That’s the first thing I’d tell you about the Jesus I know.  He loves you.  He wants to adopt you into His family. 

The Bible actually uses that word “adoption”.  The Bible says in Romans 8:23, “We wait eagerly [there’s something inside our spirit that makes us wait eagerly] for our adoption as sons and daughters of God.”

But there’s something else you need to know about the Jesus I know.  I’ll tell you a second story that will illuminate something else about Jesus that you need to know.

It’s about a woman who was baptized.  At her church they’d have two big baptism services a year and baptize hundreds of folks at once.  So when people would come up to be baptized what they would ask them to do was to take a little piece of paper and write down some of their sins.  Then they were to fold that piece of paper and when it was time for them to be baptized they would come up on the platform where there was a huge wooden cross on the stage.  They would take a pin and pin that piece of paper with their sins on it on the cross.  The Bible says in Colossians 2:14, “Our sins are nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ thereby fully paid for by His death.”  Then they’d turn and come to a pastor to be baptized.

I want to read you the words that this woman who was baptized had to say, “I remember my fear.  It was the most fear I ever remember as I wrote as tiny as I could on that piece of paper the word ‘abortion’.  I was so scared that someone would open up the paper and read it and find out it was me.  I almost wanted to get up and walk out of the auditorium during the service.  The guilt and the fear were that strong.  When my turn came, I walked up to the center of the stage toward the cross and I pinned the paper there and I was directed over to a pastor to be baptized.  He looked me straight in the eyes and I thought for sure that he was going to read in my eyes the terrible secret that I had kept from everybody for so long.  But instead I felt that God was telling me, ‘I love you.  It’s ok.  You are forgiven.’  I felt so much love for me, a terrible sinner.  It’s the first time I ever really felt forgiveness and unconditional love.  It was unbelievable.  And it was indescribable.” 

Is there some secret that is souring your soul?  Is there some secret so dark and so ugly you haven’t told anybody but it’s festered inside of you for years and years?  Maybe it’s some painful words that you’ve said to someone you loved dearly and you never took back those words.  You let them stay and you walked away.  Or maybe it’s the way you disappointed your children or disappointed your parents or disappointed a spouse.  You let them down.  They loved you and you loved them but you let them down in a key area and you never said you’re sorry.  Or maybe it’s a promise you made to someone and you meant it at the time but you broke it.  And you left them hanging and you never went back and said that you’re sorry.  Or maybe it’s a time you should have helped someone but you didn’t.  You just turned your back.  Or maybe there were choices you made in a lifestyle that you lived that hurt the people that you love the most.  I don’t know what it is.  Maybe it’s not just one thing but a cumulative effect of all these little things that weighed you down over the years.

Something else about the Jesus I know.  Not only does He want to cup your face in His hands and adopt you as a son or daughter but He also wants to ease the burden of guilt that is weighing you down.  He wants to lift it off your shoulders.  He wants you to feel liberated like that woman felt liberated.  The Bible declares over and over again that we can have complete and total forgiveness for all our sins past, present and future.  The Lord said in Isaiah 43:45, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”  And in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” 

Some of you have been Christians for a long time and you’ve forgotten that moment, not just when you were forgiven, not just when you understood you were forgiven, but you’ve forgotten what that moment felt like.  Years ago when God lifted you up and you felt it, you experienced the weight coming off your shoulders.  That woman is right.  It is indescribable.  It is unbelievable.  Incredible.  

Or maybe you’ve never felt it.  Maybe you still live under the weight of regret.  The Jesus I know wants to forgive you and He wants to liberate you and He wants you to experience that kind of freedom that woman experienced.  It will be nothing like you’ve ever experienced before.  He can do it.  He wants to do it.  He’s waiting to do it. 

Not only can Jesus forgive our past, He can rewrite our future.  Through His grace He can change us and He can transform us and He can put meaning into our life like nothing else can. 

That brings me to the third story I will tell you about the Jesus I know.  He wants to adopt us because He loves us.  He wants to forgive us and lift the weight of sin and guilt off us.  The third thing I would want you to know would come from a story about a guy named Billy Moore

Billy grew up in a tough city in Ohio.  He was very poor growing up.  He would spend time with a bunch of other teenagers in the community getting high and breaking into taverns at night and stealing cash registers, breaking into vending machines.  Then he got married and joined the army and his wife ended up leaving him.  He was destitute financially.  One night he went out with a friend of his and they had gotten drunk and were smoking grass and talking about how they needed money.  His friend started telling him, “Not far from here there is an old guy who lives in a house and I can give you the address.  This guy doesn’t believe in banks.  He’s got all his money in his bedroom.  That’s the rumor anyway.  The guy’s harmless.  Old guy, wouldn’t hurt a fly.”  Billy Moore’s listening to all this and he’s starting to hatch a plot.  He goes back to the barracks and gets his gun and loads it and he pulls up to the home and breaks in the front door. 

Put yourself in the position of this elderly man.  Gentle, kind seventy seven-year-old grandfather named Mr. Stapleton.  He’s in the bedroom and he hears somebody break in the front door of his house.  He’s scared to death.  He doesn’t know what to do.  He hears someone rummaging through things in his house and then he hears someone trying to break in the door to his bedroom.  He didn’t know what to do.  He had this shotgun for hunting purposes.  So, as the door broke in and as Billy started coming in the bedroom with his gun this elderly grandfather takes the shotgun and shoots in the direction of Billy and missed him.  And Billy takes his gun and he aims and he shoots twice and he kills that kindly old grandfather.  The guy falls dead.  Billy searched the body for any cash.  Steps over it and searches the bedroom, finds $5600.  Then he flees and goes to his trailer in rural Georgia.

It didn’t take long for the police to track Billy Moore down.  They found him the next day.  They came to his trailer, arrested him and charged him with capital murder.  A death penalty case – home invasion, murder.  And Billy was taken to prison and he sat that first night in his jail cell and he realized at that moment that life was over for him.  That was it.  There’s no hope.  There was an electric chair down the corridor from him and he knew he was going to be sitting in it before too long.  They were going to kill him and he was never ever going to see the light of day again. 

Billy’s mom was a Christian.  She calls some friends of hers that lived not too far from that jail, a husband and wife.  She said, “Would you please go talk to my son Billy?  He’s charged with murder and he’s going to face the death penalty.  And he doesn’t know Jesus.”  So this couple went over and asked if they could see Billy.  They sat down with Billy and they told him about the Jesus that they knew and they said, “Billy, God is willing to give you a fresh start.  He’s willing to forgive you.  He’s willing to give you a second chance at life.”  And Billy looked back at them dumfounded.  He said, “But you don’t understand.  I went into somebody’s house and I murdered an innocent old grandfather.  I’ve been charged with capital murder.  I am all out of fresh starts.  My life is over.  I'm going to die in that electric chair before too long.  It’s too late for a fresh start for me.” 

The pastor said, “Billy, it’s never too late.  The truth of the matter is I don’t care what you’ve done, God loves you.  God wants to adopt you as His son.  God wants to forgive you and lift this burden of guilt off your shoulders.  God can find a way to make your life count.”

Billy Moore not only heard the Lord in that couple, he saw Jesus in them.  He saw Jesus in their countenances and in their words and in their love.  He said later, “No one had ever told me that Jesus loved me.  No one ever told me that Jesus died for me.  This was the love I could feel.  It was a love I wanted.  This was a love I needed.”

So Billy Moore, as broken and as hopeless an individual as you’re ever going to meet, said yes to Jesus Christ, “Yes, forgive my sins.  Yes, adopt me as Your son.  Yes, do something.  I don’t know how You’re going to do it but do something to make whatever life I have left count for something.” 

God heard that prayer.  There was a little bathtub sitting there that they used for bathing the inmates that hadn’t been used in a while.  They got permission to fill the bathtub with water, and they put Billy in it kneeling, and they baptized him that day. 

When Billy Moore came out of that water he was a different man.  Billy’s life from that moment on began to change.  He went into court.  What could he do?  He couldn’t lie and say he didn’t do it.  He committed the murder.  He said, “I did it.  I killed him.  I intended to.  I went with a loaded gun.”  He pleaded guilty.  They brought down the gavel and said, “Death.  You’re going to the electric chair.”

But you know how court cases drag on and on.  It was sixteen years that Billy lived in a cage waiting to die.  During that time, Billy opened his heart and his life up more and more to God and God began to change this man’s attitude and his demeanor and his philosophy and his actions.  Everything about Billy began to change.  He became a model inmate.  The guards had a nickname for Billy.  They called him The Peacemaker.  The cellblock – Death Row – was a place of despair and hatred and hopelessness.  Billy led many other inmates to Jesus Christ and their lives began to change.  The whole environment Death Row changed for the good.  It went from a place of being hopeless and full of violence and hatred to a place of hope.  To a place where people cared for each other.  They studied the Bible together.  They asked God, “Change us!  Please.” 

Billy took 32 correspondence courses from a Bible college and he became such an effective counselor that local churches would send people they had to counsel to Death Row to Billy Moore to be counseled.  It was an amazing thing.  There were so many people on Death Row and beyond Death Row that were impacted for eternity because of a guy who lived in a cage for sixteen years. 

The question has never been will God forgive you?  That has never been the question.  The Bible tells us in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins to Him He can be depended upon to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong.”  That has never been the question.  The question has always been will you allow God to forgive you?  Because if He can forgive a killer like Billy Moore who took the life of an innocent grandfather what in the world have you done that you think would be worse or beyond the ability of God to forgive.  The issue is not will He forgive you.  The issue is will you let Him.  And the issue has never been can God inject meaning into my life, can God change me as a person? 

The Bible says clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside.  He’s not the same any more.  A new life has begun.”  So the question is will you open your life to Him and to His power and His grace to change you from the inside out and to give you a purpose for your life that goes beyond eating and drinking and sleeping and working.  Will you allow Him to do that?  If He could take a guy like Billy Moore living in a cage for sixteen years and use him to impact so many people for good, think what He could do with you!  You’re free!  What could He do through you in your family?  With your children?  In your neighborhood?  At your workplace?  In this church?  Think what He could do through you. 

August of 1990 is when the court system finally caught up with Billy Moore.  The sentence had been affirmed all the way  to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court said, “That’s it!  Time to die!”  The date set for him to die was August 22, 1990.  As the hours ticked down to that moment his lawyers started calling Billy.  Billy was put in the Death Watch cage right next to the electric chair.  His lawyers said, “It was the strangest thing.  We called Billy with the intention of consoling him but what happened was Billy Moore consoled us.  Billy said things to us like, ‘Are you guys doing ok?  I know this is hard on you.  I know this is really difficult.  Are you getting through this ok?  Is there a way I can pray for you guys?’  It was an amazing thing.  We tried to console him.  He ended up consoling us.”

Why was that?  Because Billy Moore was ready to die.  Billy Moore was ready to meet Jesus face to face.  His reasoning was if Jesus loves me enough to forgive me of all my sins and to lift that guilt off my shoulders, if Jesus loves me enough to cup my face in His hands and say I want to adopt you as My son forever and ever, if Jesus loves me that much then I can trust Him with my eternity.  When I close my eyes in this world and I open them in the next I can trust if Jesus loves me that much He’s going to take care of me. 

On August 24 of 1990 just 7½ hours before they were going to shave Billy’s head and legs so the electrodes could be attached so the current could course through his body,  something absolutely amazing took place.  The Georgia Pardon and Parole Board decided to hold an emergency hearing about this model prisoner everyone was talking about and who’d had this incredible impact on so many lives.  And guess who came to this emergency hearing of the Pardon and Parole Board?  All of the relatives of the kindly old grandfather who was murdered by Billy Moore.  They got up before the Pardon and Parole Board and they begged them to spare the life of Billy Moore.  Why was that? 

“Because,” they said, “Many years ago Billy Moore asked for our forgiveness and we gave it to him.  How could we not forgive him?  God has forgiven him.  How could we not forgive Billy Moore?  If we’ve been forgiven our sins by God how could we withhold forgiveness from Billy.”  They said, “Please, spare his life.” 

The largest newspaper in Georgia, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution ran an editorial that referred to Billy Moore as a saintly figure.  Mother Teresa called all the way from India and offered a simple bit of advice.  She said, “Just do what Jesus would do.” 

Billy knew something on that day beyond a shadow of a doubt.  He knew he was guilty.  He had committed a heinous crime.  No question about it.  He admitted it and under the law in the State of Georgia the appropriate justice to be meted out was for him to be strapped to that electric chair and be killed. 

But the five members of the Pardon and Parole Board did something so amazing and so unprecedented that the next day it made the front page of the New York Times.  They looked out at this repentant man and they said unanimously “We are going to show mercy to Billy Moore.”  And not only did they throw out the death penalty against Billy Moore they set the gears in motion for Billy Moore to be set free from jail, to go out in society.  The first time in America history that a confessed murderer on Death Row had been allowed to go free.  When that Parole and Pardon board announced its decision spontaneously everyone in the audience stood up and started singing “Amazing Grace”.  Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like Billy Moore.  What else did they do but sing the anthem of forgiven people.

That is a small taste of what grace is about.  It is undeserved forgiveness.  Billy Moore deserved to die but they said he could live.  Incredible clemency.  Unmerited favor.  Outrageous compassion.  Could I tell you where Billy Moore is going to be tomorrow morning?  He is going to be where he is every Sunday morning.  He’s in church where he goes to worship the God of the second chance.  Now Billy Moore is an ordained minister and his church is located in Rome, Georgia right between two public housing projects.  Billy Moore spends his spare time in Rome, Georgia finding all the people who had been forgotten by everybody else and reaching out to them and loving them and caring for them and providing for them.  That’s the heart of Billy Moore.

What changed Billy Moore?”  He said, “Plain and simple it was Jesus Christ.  He changed me in ways I never could have changed on my own.  He gave me a reason to live.  He helped me do the right thing for a change.  He gave me a heart for other people and He saved my soul.” 

That’s the Jesus I know!  The five things that we all need.  To change in us what we cannot change on our own.  To give us a reason to live.  To help us do the right thing.  To give us a heart for other people.  To save our souls.  The five things that we need most are the five things the Jesus I know offers to every single human being. 

And the most amazing thing of all is it’s free.  It’s a gift.  It cost Jesus everything.  It cost Jesus his suffering and death on the cross.  The price tag was huge for God, but to you it is free.  That’s the grace of God. 

And if you would say, “I want that.  I really want that.  How do I experience this?  How do I know this Jesus?”  You just do what Billy Moore did.  You go into court like he did and plead guilty.  In effect you go before the court of God and you say to Him, “I'm guilty.  I know I’ve done things I never should have done.  That’s why I feel this guilt on my shoulders.  I know that’s true and now I understand these wrongs that I’ve done that have separated me from You because You’re pure, You’re holy, You’re perfect.  And it’s created a distance between us.  I don’t want that distance anymore.  I want You to live inside of me.  I want You to change my life and I want to know You starting this moment forever.” 

The Jesus I know never turns a deaf ear to a prayer like that.  Never.  The Jesus I know would respond by forgiving, by adopting, by empowering and by changing your life.  How could we not want to know a Jesus like that?  If you’re being pulled right now towards Him, if the window of spiritual opportunity is open for you right now, why would you not want that in your life?  Don’t spit in His face again.  You can say “Yes”.  You can know Him.  You can meet Him today.  Then spend the rest of your life getting to know Him better.  It’ll be the biggest adventure you’ve ever had.  Then when you die you’ll go into eternity knowing Him perfectly forever.

Do you want to meet Him?  Do you want to know Him?  Let me give you an opportunity to do that. 

Prayer: 

If you want to meet Him right now just repeat these words in your mind.  God knows your heart.  He knows your mind.  He knows everything about you.  He’ll hear you.  Say, “Lord Jesus, I do want to know You.  I have committed all kinds of sin.  I’ve fallen so short of how I know You want me to live and I'm sorry for that and I want to turn from that.  I want to follow You.  I want to not just know You, I want to experience You.  I want You to take me to heaven.  I want You to change my life.  I want You to lead me from this moment on because, Lord Jesus, I love You.  How could I not love You when You want to forgive me, adopt me, empower me and change me.”

Father, for all who prayed that prayer we know that they are on the threshold of a great adventure of knowing You, of You working inside their hearts to change them.  The single greatest thing they’ve ever done is just simply saying yes to the freely offered gift of Christ.  We pray that You would work inside them to begin this transformation process even now and we thank You that You offer this out of Your love for them and we pray this in Jesus’ name.  Amen. 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

March 2011 Newsletter


FROM THE PASTOR:   From the mouths of children:
While in the reception area of a doctor’s office a woman rolled an elderly man in a wheelchair into the room.  As she went to the receptionist’s desk, the man sat there, alone and silent.  After a short time a little boy slipped off his mother’s lap and walked over to the wheelchair.  Placing his hand on the man’s he said, “I know how you feel.  My mom makes me ride in the stroller too!”
Paul Newman founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children stricken with cancer, AIDS, and blood diseases.  One afternoon, he and his wife, Joanne Woodward, stopped by to have lunch with the kids.  A counselor at a nearby table, suspecting the young patients wouldn’t know that Newman was a famous movie star, explained, “That’s the man who made this camp possible.  Maybe you’ve seen his picture on his salad dressing bottle?”  Blank stares.  “Well, maybe you have seen his face on his lemonade carton?”  An 8 year old girl finally perked up and asked “How long was he missing?”
FELLOWSHIP DINNER
The fellowship dinner for March will be held Wednesday March 2nd at 6:30 pm in the fellowship hall.  Everyone is welcome, even if you don’t have time to make something to bring.
SHUT IN OF THE MONTH
All during the month we will collect special items for our Shut In of the Month—cards, candy, a book, cookies, a nice bookmark, whatever you decide.  You can give these items to Jennifer Lee, or put them in the basket in the entryway to the sanctuary.  At the end of the month a basket of these love gifts will be taken to that Shut In. The Shut In for the month of March is Pat Adcock.
FELLOWSHIP BIBLE STUDY GATHERING
Those interested in a time of sharing, praying, and fellowshipping together are welcome to gather at the home of Henry Procopio on Wednesday March 16th at 6:30 pm.  This is a monthly gathering but anyone is welcome to come whenever they can come. The group is studying the Gospel of Mark.  You can start at any time.  Desserts are provided.
UPCOMING DATES
April 17            Palm Sunday
April 23            Children’s Eater Party
April 24            Easter Sunday

CHURCH CLEANING SCHEDULE
For March 6th                        Matt & Renee
For March 13th                         Martha & Henry           
For March 20th                         Jennifer Lee
For March 27th                         Steve & Sheri
For April  3rd                         Donna & Trent
COMMUNION
We will celebrate Communion on Sunday, March 13th.
 DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
Daylight savings time begins Sunday March 13.  Don’t forget to turn your clocks and watches AHEAD one hour at bedtime Saturday night. 
MEMBER ADDRESSES NEEDED
The church is responsible for keeping up with its members’ addresses even if they move.  We are missing addresses for the following members:  Charlie Brown, Mitch and Vickie Skelton, Lois Harper.  If you can get an address and phone number for any of these people please write it down and give it to the pastor. 
WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY
Did you know that an estimated 70% of all people who die do not have a Will or Living Trust?  Without proper estate planning your church cannot receive gifts from you estate.  Do you know who your heirs will be?  Is your church a beneficiary of your estate? 
TRUSTEES MEETING
The Trustees will meet Tuesday, March 22 at 6:30.  The trustees are:  Martha Neeley, Henry Procopio, Grady Garton, Steve Lain, Patsy Clark, Sandra Robinson, Charles Powell, Tim Garrett, Doug Baxter. 
PASTOR PARISH RELATIONS COMMITTEE
The 2011 Pastor Parish Relations Committee will meet for their first meeting of the year to learn the committee responsibilities on Thursday, March 31 at 6:30.  Members of the committee are:  Kara Jackson, Henry Procopio, Patsy Clark, Dee Randolph, Mary Cline, Charles Powell, Mary Beth Riley, Jesse Browning, Vickie Kegerise, Brenda Alcorn.
JOELTON HOPE CENTER –Neighbors Helping Neighbors
The Hope Center is located 212 Gifford Place, between Curves and the Laundromat.  There are now over 115 client families being helped by our center.  In January 36 families [138 individuals] received food boxes. 
A barrel is in the entryway of the church to receive donations for the Joelton Hope Center.  [You can also take them directly to the Hope Center.]  For the month of March we will be collecting Baby Stuff—diapers, wipes, formula, bibs, diaper rash ointment, lotions, shampoos, soaps.
The Hope Center is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10-4 and 10-2 Saturday while we are on Central Standard Time.  The Hope Center Board set a goal of being open 6 days a week in 2011 so additional volunteers are needed any day Monday-Saturday.   Dee Randolph has recently started volunteering again there.  She would love for others from Forest Grove to join her. 
PASTOR BILLMAN’S WORK SCHEDULE
About 6 years ago the Pastor Parish Relations Committee and Church Council decided to ask the Tennessee Annual Conference to appoint a part time pastor to Forest Grove due to financial struggles that the church was experiencing at the time.  Part time pastors can be ¾, ½ or ¼ time.  Pastor Billman was then appointed to Forest Grove ½ time in July 2005.  In spite of that, when he presented the Pastor Parish Relations Committee a couple years ago with a list of the things that he does for Forest Grove church, no one on the committee could point out anything missing that a full time pastor would be doing.  In order for Forest Grove to return to a full time appointment, the Pastor Parish Relations Committee and Church Council would have to vote to do that and then obtain the permission of the annual conference to do so. 
The Discipline does not allow full time pastors to have a second job.  However, most part time pastors who are not retired need a second job.  So, Pastor Billman is also appointed to Aldersgate Renewal Ministries in Goodlettsville ½ time by the Eastern PA Annual Conference.  He works at the ARM office Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8-4.  In addition he is gone some weekends on ARM business across the country and around the world.  Aldersgate also pays for Pastor Billman’s health insurance. 
Peg Billman’s playing the piano for church services, choir practices and special music; directing the bell choir, preparing words for the choruses and sermon for projecting on the wall, making banners for the sanctuary, formatting the newsletter and mailing labels, and maintaining the church blog site are all done for free. 
ENCOURAGING WORD
What God hates is human pride—the kind of pride that says, "I don't need God." The kind of pride that seeks to be great apart from God. Again and again in Scripture, God says he opposes the proud. He wants us to be like trusting children, looking to him for every need, every breath we take. That kind of attitude goes against the world … but reaches God's heart every time.
ASH WEDNESDAY
The church season of Lent, leading up to Easter, begins on Ash Wednesday, March 9th.  We will have a special combined Ash Wednesday service of our Joelton area United Methodist churches at St. Andrew UMC, 4590 Clarksville Pike, Nashville at 7pm.  We will be taking our bells and Pastor Billman will bring the evening message.  The offering will go to the Joelton Hope Center.
The Lenten Coin Folders also begin that day.  The money raised through them will go toward our local and foreign mission projects.  These folders will be available in the entryway. 
UPCOMING SERMONS
Set For Life:  Meeting the Jesus I Know—Feb 27
Set For Life:  Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda—March 13
Set For Life:  Habits of Highly Ineffective Christians—March 20
How to Be Used By God, Part One—March 27
How to Be Used By God, Part Two—April 3
The Weeping King—Palm Sunday, April 17
FIVE FINGER PRAYER
1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a 'sweet duty.' 

 
2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.

 
3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.

 
4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger, as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.

 
5. And lastly comes our little finger - the smallest finger of all, which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, 'The least shall be the greatest among you.' Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.

March 2011
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday


1
2
6:30-Fellowship Dinner

Pastor and Peg are
3



gone through March
4



8th
5
6
9:30-Sunday School
10:30-Worship
Harry Burger preaching
7
8
9
7:00-Combined Ash Wednesday service at St. Andrew
(Lenten coin folders start)
10
11
12

13
9:30-Sunday School
10:30-Worship
COMMUNION
14
15
16

6:30-Bible study & fellowship at Henry’s-Anyone is welcome!
17
18
19
20
9:30-Sunday School
10:30-Worship

21
22


6:30-Trustees Mtng
23
24
25
26
27
9:30-Sunday School
10:30-Worship

28
29
30
31

6:30 – Pastor-Parish Relations Comm. Mtng.


 

 

Sunday, February 20, 2011

February 20, 2011 Sermon - "How to Simplify"

Click here to listen to this week's sermon.



HOW TO SIMPLIFY
From Burnout to Balance
Part 7 of 7 02-20-11 Sermon

“How to Simplify.”  We need this, don’t we, in a complicated world, in a world where the pace is increasing all the time.  It’s very evident that simplifying is in.  Advertisers have found that one of the top five reasons today that you and I buy things is because it’s simple.  People want simple. 

You just start looking at the bookstores, the number of books that have been printed on “The Simple Life” in the last few years.  It is absolutely incredible.  There is one book on the simple life that is 872 pages long.  Does this sound simple?  Only in America can we take the simple life and make a complex multi-billion dollar industry out of it. 

What if Jesus wrote a book like this?  He’s the one who knows us the best, He understands us the most.  He created us.  He knows (better than any other person - as good as some of that advice might be) a lot more about me and what I need to simplify in my life.  What if He’d written a book like this?  Then I realized I don’t have to wonder about that.  He talks a lot about the simple life.  He said a lot of things about how to slow things down and simplify things and change things.  He lived this kind of a life.  So this morning we’re going to look not at 2000 things Jesus said about the simple life, that wouldn’t be simple, but just four things that He said.

Another title you could put on this sermon would be “You Don’t Have to Become Amish”.  For many of us we think to simplify life I’ve got to escape from all of it, go somewhere, disconnect my electricity, never drive a car again, that’s the only way for me.  At least the Amish have done something about it.  Many of us year after year have thought about simplifying, thought about slowing down, but it’s just a thought.  We respect them because they’ve done something.

Jesus Christ shows us how to do something.  Right here, where you live.  Right now.  He can change things, simplify things, start to work from the inside out.  Four simple things.

1.  Simplify the way You Speak

That’s true in a couple of areas:

1.  The way you speak to people.  The way you talk to people.  Jesus had something to say about this in Matthew 5:37.  “Simply let your ‘Yes” be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’, ‘No’.”  We let our “yes” be “yes” but our “no” be “maybe”, don’t we?  And because of that, things get complicated because we say “yes” to so many things in life. 

One business journal wrote, “What separates the peak performers from the weak performers is the first group says “No” to anything that’s not important while the second group says “Yes” to everything.” 

While that may be a part of what Jesus is talking about here there’s something else.  There’s something deeper that’s at the center of what He’s saying when He says “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.”  He’s talking about being honest with our words.  He’s talking about having integrity with our words.  He’s talking about not being sneaky with our words. 

Do you realize how complicated life gets just because of a single lie?  Have you seen that happen?  Covering it up?  The situation comedies that we grew up watching as kids, a lot of them were based on somebody telling a lie … Lucy told Ricky a lie at the beginning of the show and the entire show was about how complicated things got trying to cover that over.  It was funny in black and white but it’s not nearly so funny in our lives when we have to live with the fact of what our words have done to us. 

So Jesus says, “You want to make things more simple?  Be honest with people.  Don’t call it a white lie or stretching the truth or you’re doing this for their own good.  Be honest with people.  It’s amazing how much more simple things become when we tell the truth.  Start with people.  Jesus says simplify the way you speak.  Be honest in your words to people.  Even though that’s tough some times it will simplify things

2.  It also says be honest in the way you speak to God.  We have a hard time being ourselves when we’re talking to God.  We have lots of strategies for not being ourselves.

Some people try to be cool with God, like they’re trying to be funny because they’re afraid of being themselves so they talk to God as the Big Guy in the sky and say things like that and sort of snicker at Him.  They just have a hard time being themselves. 

Other people try this false humility.  “O God, I'm just a worm.  I know You don’t want to talk to me.”  That kind of talking to God.  
Many of us try formality.  We have a hard time being ourselves so we’re very formal when we talk to God.  The “thee’s” and “thou’s”.  It’s not an IRS form, folks.  You don’t have to get all the things on the right line.  It’s talking to God. 

Jesus said, Let’s make it simple.”  Matthew 6:6 “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.  Then your Father who sees what’s done in secret will reward you.”  “Make it simple”, Jesus said.  Just talk to God. 

One translation says, “When you pray, go into your closet and talk to God.”  We want to simplify things by organizing our closet.  Jesus says simplify it by going into your closet and talking to God.  That’s where it really starts.

Jesus says, “Do you want to make things simpler?” Don’t start on the outside.  Start on the inside.  Think about how you talk to God.  Do you talk to Him honestly?  Are you able to just be yourself?  I like the way Matthew 6:6 reads in The Message translation.  Jesus said, “Here’s what I want you to do.  Find a quiet secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God.  Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.  The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense His grace.”  I need that.  We all need this in our lives. 

So, Jesus says learn to talk to God while being yourself.  Everything will be simple if we talk to God just being ourselves in prayer.  Not just prayer will be simpler.  Everything will be simpler.  If I can talk to God honestly in prayer, if I don't have to put on masks there, I can see more honestly what’s happening in life.  If I don't have to put on a mask in front of God and fake it, I don’t have to fake it in front of you anymore.  That’s how life gets simpler.

How do you talk to God honestly?  You talk to Him about what you’re thinking.  You don’t talk to Him about what you think you should be thinking when you’re talking to God.  You talk to Him about what you’re really thinking.  I know what some of you are thinking right now:  “God doesn’t want to know what I am thinking!”  God already knows what you’re thinking and He just wants you to talk to Him honestly, as ugly as it may seem to you.  That's how life begins to change. 

How do you talk to God honestly?  You go to God and just talk to Him like you would to anybody else.  You don’t put on fancy words that you don’t use any other time.  You don’t use a tone of voice that you don’t use any other time.  “O most gracious holy heavenly Father…”  You don’t pray in that kind of a way.  Sometimes I think we pray so we’ll impress God with that, that He’s going to look down from heaven thinking, “Wow!  That’s the greatest prayer I’ve ever heard.   
What God wants is for you and I to just learn to be ourselves when we talk to him.  Jesus says that is one of the things that starts on the inside and works its way out and makes life simpler.  Be honest when you talk to God.  Be simple in the way that you speak.

Jesus also gave us the advice, the command and direction to…

ii.  Simplify the way YOU act. 

Simplify the way you act in relationships with other people.  Relationships can get so complicated.  What do I do, and how do I do it, and I don’t know what to do next. 

Have you ever sat down at one of the very complicated place settings at a formal dinner or fancy restaurant with all the plates and like a hundred utensils.  I’ve always been utensil challenged all my life.  I forget where the fork goes!  And you’ve got all these things and you’re thinking, “I’ve got to use the right thing to eat the shrimp or they’re going to look at me like I'm really a goofball.  This is not going to work!”  Finally somebody gave me a simple rule to help me understand how the whole thing works.  You work from the outside in.  Simple rules can help.

Jesus gave us a simple rule for relationships.  He said, “You want to figure out how relationships work, how to act?  You work from the inside out.”  You might recognize what He said in the book of Mathew 7:12 “Here is a simple rule of thumb guide of behavior.  Ask yourself what you want people to do for you – that’s the inside.  What am I feeling on the inside I’d like others to do for me?  Then grab the initiative and do it for them – that’s the outside.”  You work from the inside out.  This is what’s been called the Golden Rule. 

We often play by different rules in this world.  The golden rule says you treat others the way you want to be treated yourself.  We sometimes live by a different rule.  Often we live by the rule that we treat others the way they have treated us. Not the way I want to be treated but the way they have treated me.  This is the reciprocal rule: If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.  If you snub me, I'm going to snub you.  If you’re rotten to me, I'm going to be rotten to you.  Often this is how we run our relationships and things get very complicated.  We’re all going back and forth and reciprocating to each other – who was nice to me, who was bad to me.  You just don’t know what to do to who sometimes.  It’s very complicated. 

And we often live by another rule: We treat others the way someone else has treated us.  Not the way they treated me but the way somebody else has treated me.  This gets very complicated.  In your family - your husband, wife, your kids - you’re treating somebody in a way that’s really something from when you were growing up.  So the way your parents treated you comes into your family today.  The way that somebody treated you in a former marriage.  Or maybe something as simple as something that happened at the office that day and you bring that anger home and start treating everybody else that way.  It’s very complicated, the way others have treated me.

Then there’s another way we try to live out this rule sometimes.  We treat them in the way we think they’re going to treat us before they treat us that way.  I’ll get them before they get me.  That’s what this rule is all about.  A kid was memorizing this rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  But he got it wrong and said, “Do one to others before they do one to you.”

Jesus says I'm supposed to think how I’d like other people to treat me and I’d like to be treated then treat other people that way.  There’s an honest human question that comes into our minds about this.  Every one of us think, “What’s in it for me?  Who is the Golden Rule really golden for?  If I start treating other people this way I'm going to get taken advantage of.  If I start treating other people this way, I'm going to get plowed under.  Is this really going to work?”

Jesus knew that we would feel this way.  He said to us in Matthew 23 “Here’s the truth about life.  Do you want to stand out?  Then step down.  Be a servant.  If you puff yourself up you’ll get the wind knocked out of you.  But if you’re content to simply be yourself then your life will count for plenty.”  Want your life to really count?  Jesus said, “Think of what you’d like people to do for you and do it for them.”  Life gets much less complicated when we stop thinking of positioning ourselves in any and every circumstance for the best benefit to us.  And we just start thinking about giving to other people, doing for others what we’d like to have done for us. 

And by the way, Jesus said there’s no better way to stand out in this world, there’s no better way to make an impact in this world than doing that.  That uncomplicates life when you simplify the way that you act.

The third thing that Jesus talked to us about…3.  SIMPLIFY the way you live

The pace of life, the hurriedness of life, the hectic lives that we live, sometimes things just get so busy we don't know where to turn next.  We live in a world where things are very complicated.  There’s so much information to process.  There’s so many ways that are interconnected.  You have a lot of lines going into you, don’t you?  So we all want to know, “How am I going to make it through this life?”  There are sentences in our society like “I couldn’t answer your page about the message on my answering machine discussing the call to my cell phone concerning the email I haven’t returned.”  That’s what’s happening in the world we live in. 

You’ve all been in the elevator or the office or the room and a cell phone or pager goes off and fifteen people dive to see if it’s theirs.  This is a complicated world.  Then you have the people who want to make sure they know it’s their cell phone and so they put the entire “1812 Overture” as their ringer.  They don’t answer it until the fourth movement.  Very complicated, very connected world.      

Many of you are discovering in this world where you’re connected all the time, that timesaving devices can become time slaving devices.  That those very things that were supposed to help you are now enslaving you.   These things connect us all the time to anything and everything. 

Is it really that important to be connected every second of the day?  It is a sign of our time that you can’t even rest in the restroom anymore.  Something is terribly wrong.  We’ve got to find a way sometimes in our life to disconnect.  It’s important to connect to others.  No problem with that.  But it’s also important sometimes to disconnect, that you have some time to get some breathing space in your life.  Just a little bit of breathing space.

Jesus understood the need for this.  He was on this earth for only 33 years, and only three years of ministry.  He was changing the world, changing eternity in only three years.  Yet He knew there was a time to get away, disconnect and get some breathing space.  Mark 6:31. The Bible says about Jesus and His followers, “Then because so many people were coming and going that they didn’t even have a chance to eat, He said to them, ‘Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’”  Come with me.  I need a time to be with Jesus Christ, the one who loves me the most, who made me, who understands me better than anybody.  By yourselves.  Time to be alone.  That’s part of this disconnecting.  A quiet place.  A place where it’s quiet, with Jesus, by myself. 

Let me give you a place to start.  How do you make this work?  Millions of believers for thousands of years have had this habit of spending ten or fifteen minutes a day doing this.  A few minutes each day.  Some people call it a “quiet time”. 

What do you do?  Maybe read a verse or two of the Bible with the Upper Room devotional guide.  You talk to God about what you’re thinking about.  I'm not talking about half an hour, an hour, two hours.  Just a few moments each day of connecting with Him, thinking about what’s really important.

Philippians 4:8 talks about the importance.  “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”  When do you have time to think about those things in your life? 

You know, you’ve got time to worry!  We’ve got time to stress over our jobs or other things going on in our lives.  When do you have time to think about things that are good and pure and lovely and admirable?  If you don’t make time to do that it will never happen.  It’s amazing what a few minutes a day with Jesus by yourself in a quiet place can do. 

This is so important I want to help you get started in this.  Philippians is a book all about joy.  Who couldn’t use more joy?  There are only 4 chapters, just a few pages in your bible.  Read a chapter each day.  What I encourage you to do the next four days is read a chapter in Philippians each day.  That’s the best part of it anyway.  Spend a few minutes – ten, fifteen minutes – just by yourself in a quiet place and watch the difference, the incredible difference it makes when you disconnect and you spend some time with Him, when you simplify the way that you live.

4.  SIMPLIFY THE WAY YOU BELIEVE

We make belief a complicated thing sometimes.  Do this.  Don’t do that.  Be there.  Don’t be there.  Call this person ‘this’.  Call that person ‘that’.  We don’t know what to do.  We don’t even know the times or the places or the seasons and how it all works out.  So Jesus says you’ve got to simplify the way you believe.  If you’re confused by all this, if this whole idea of faith is very complicated to you, don’t despair.  You’re not alone in this.  There have been many, many people who have felt that this is complicated.  The first followers of Jesus Christ felt like it was complicated and tried to complicate it even more. 

Matthew 18.  They came to Jesus one day and said, “Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  They were trying to set up a complicated hierarchy.  “Jesus, this is too simple.  We need a pope.  We need a rabbi.  We need a high priest.  We need a guru.  Somebody to make this more complicated.”  Jesus Christ was not about to let that happen.  So instead of talking about all these things they wanted to talk about the Bible says He called a little child into the middle of the meeting. 

Here’s what happened.  Matthew 18.  “Jesus called a little child to Him and He stood the child before His followers and then He said, ‘I tell you the truth.  You must change and become like little children.  Otherwise you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven.’”  Don’t worry about who’s greatest!  You’re not even getting in unless you do this.  Jesus went on to say, “The greatest person in the kingdom of heaven is the one who makes himself humble like this child.” 

You want to uncomplicate faith?  Jesus said become like a little child. 

How do you do that?  How does that work?  Who’s He talking about?  Does it mean I become more innocent in some way?  Does it mean I become less materialistic?  Does it mean I become more accepting or less jaded?  What’s He talking about?

He says in the last sentence.  “You become humble like this child.”  There’s something about kids.  There’s something about a little child.  They know they’re not the greatest in the world.  They’re not trying to put on airs.  You’re sitting in a restaurant with a bunch of people.  A four-year-old never says, “I’ll pick up the tab on this one.”  It doesn’t happen.  They never worry about that.  They’re sitting at the table and they know someone else is going to pick up the tab.  It’s fine with them.  They don’t worry about it. 

But something happens to us as we grow older and there comes a day in all of our lives when we begin to say, “I’ve got to do this on my own now.  I can’t depend on anyone else.”  In that moment, Jesus says, life starts to get very complicated.  You need to go back to that place where you can say to God, “God, I depend on You.  God, I need You.  I need Your help.”

You know when it’s most difficult to be humble?  It’s most difficult when it comes to the wrong things we’ve done.  For the sins that we’ve committed.  The Bible talks about this in Romans 3:22 when it says “We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins.  [Not trust in ourselves, but trust in Him to take away our sins.]  And we all can be saved in the same way no matter who we are or what we’ve done.” 

It takes humility to admit I’ve sinned.  I’ve done the wrong thing, sinful things in life.  It takes even greater humility to admit that those sinful things I’ve done have hurt me, they’ve hurt the people I love, they’ve hurt God, the heart of God.  But I think it takes the greatest humility to admit there is nothing I can do to make up for those sins.  I can’t do enough.  You know when religion gets really complicated?  When we try to build a religion that tries to do enough to make up for the wrong things that we’ve done.  There are all kinds of religions out there that try to do that, almost all the other world religions besides Christianity.  And it gets very complicated. 

Jesus says, “That’s not the way it works.  I’ll do it for you.  Depend on Me.”  Jesus Christ went to a cross, died on that cross to give us the gift of forgiveness.  It doesn’t come through what I do.  I’ve got to depend on Him.  He went to a cross, He died on a cross and He said about our sins, “I’ll pick up the tab.  I give my life so that you can have forgiveness. 

Do you want to simplify faith?  Jesus said “Become like a child.  Depend on Me.”

A man named Jairus in the Bible went to Jesus one day to ask for some help.  He knew he needed Jesus’ help because his daughter was sick and they’d tried everything else and he was afraid she was going to die.  So he asked Jesus to come and heal her.  Jesus said He would.  Then life got very confusing for Jairus.  On the way to his daughter, other people started to come and ask for help from Jesus and He actually stopped and helped some of these people on the way there.  Jairus must have been confused about this:  “Jesus, we’ve got to get going!  This is an emergency.  We have to get there quickly or she will die.”  He was hurried.  He was worried.  Then when they were almost there some people from his house came and said, “Tell Jesus not to come.  Your daughter’s dead anyway.  It’s not going to work.  You were foolish to even hope that there could be any help here.”  So here is this guy and he doesn’t know what to do.  The press of the crowd and all these things are happening, hurried, worried, voices saying it’s not going to work anyway. 

Then something cuts through all that.  Jesus looks him in the eye.  He says, “Don’t be afraid, just trust Me.” 

A lot of us are like that guy.  Life gets pretty confusing, pretty hurried, pretty worried.  Then there are the voices around us that are saying, “This won’t work and that won’t work and why even depend on Him.  Why even hope?”  We need today, right here, right now to hear… we need to see Jesus looking you right in the eye and saying, “Don’t be afraid.  Just trust Me.”  That’s where it starts.  Simple, childlike depending upon Him.

Prayer:

          You can pray in your heart, “Jesus, I come to you today, as simply and honestly as I can.  I’ve put my trust in You.  I trust You to forgive me.  I trust You to show me how to live.  I'm tired of hoping to organize my life to make it better.  I trust You to begin to revolutionize my life from the inside out.  Jesus, as best as I know how, I'm going to depend on You today to forgive me and to guide me.” 

Father, as we pray together I pray that You would help us all learn this week to trust You in a greater way.  Help us learn how to simplify our lives by simplifying the way that we speak, that we learn to speak honestly with others as scary as that may be, and to talk honestly with You because that’s what you want from us. 

Father, I pray that You’d help us too in the way that we act, to treat others the way we want to be treated and have the courage to do that.  Lord, help us learn how to disconnect in life, to realize how important that relationship with You is.  Everything else seems more important but there’s nothing really more important than You. 

Then Lord help us to grasp what this thing of simple faith means, depending on You in circumstances and situations and worries and struggles of life.  In fact, right now we bring them to You as best we can.  We want to trust You – just trust You – with our hurts, just trust You with that problem that we’re facing, just trust You for that decision.  Lord – just trust You with our lives.  We want to do this.  We ask that this would happen in the name of Jesus.  Amen.