1-24-09 For Such A Time As This

Big idea

 

We live in a world in which unprecedented prosperity exists alongside desperate poverty.  God is mobilizing his church to bring hope to a world in despair.

 

Download from www.sermonspice.com one of the following videos:

Open Your Eyes or Given to the Least of These.

 

It is abundantly clear that God is far from silent on the subject of suffering.  Again and again in the Bible, he shows us his heart for the oppressed, marginalized, and impoverished.  Scripture overflows with references and stories that reveal God’s perspective on the issues of injustice and mercy.  Here are just a few examples:

 

• Psalm 9:9 the Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble (NLT).
• Psalm 146:7a God upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
• Psalm 72:12-14 For God will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.  He will take pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy.  He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is there blood in his sight.

 

God loves the hurting and hungry.  He loves those who are oppressed and afflicted.  And he tells us in no uncertain terms how we are to respond to those who are suffering.

 

• Micah 6:8 the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (NLT).

 

This is what God requires of us.  This is not negotiable.  This is not a choice if we are truly to be God’s people.  God calls us to love all people as much as we love ourselves.  Every day we’re faced with a thousand choices, and many of them boil down to this: Will we do the right thing or not?  Will we intervene when we see someone being mistreated? Will we respond to the needs of those around us?  Will we speak up when it would be easier to remain silent?

 

A friend told me he was picking up a prescription at a local pharmacy when he overheard the woman in front of him tell the pharmacist that she didn’t have enough money to pay for all of her prescriptions and would have to come back.  My friend wondered if he should help and concluded that he should.  He offered to pay for the remainder of her order, which totaled nearly $100.  At first, the woman resisted, but she relented when the man went ahead and just paid the pharmacist over her objections.  Tearfully, she thanked him and laughed.  Hope lives!

 

We are called to walk humbly before God, realizing that we could be the poor and oppressed people of the world.  We will remember Jesus words in Luke 6:31:

 

Do to others as you would have them do to you.  If we were in slavery, dying of AIDS, or starving to death, what would we want others to do?  How would we want them to respond to us?  Can you remember a time that you were poor or in need and someone helped you?  Did that experience move you to do likewise? 

 

• 1 John 3:17 if someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need, but shows no compassion, how can God’s love be in that person? (NLT).

 

This is blunt language.  There is no wiggle room here. It’s not enough to feel compassion; God requires us to show compassion in tangible ways.  If we don’t, God’s love is simply not in us.

 

• James 2:14-17, what good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith, but don’t show it by your actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, goodbye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well, but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?  So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough.  Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless (NLT).

 

Dead and useless?  How many times have I passed by a person in need without stopping to help?  How many times have I ignored a stranger’s plea for help?  How many times have I failed to even notice people around me, who are hurting?  If you are like me, you’ve lost count.  We like to believe we are living out our faith in ways that matter, but God doesn’t mince words: unless our faith produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.  If we, who are called to be like Christ, ignore the people Christ would of befriended, our faith is dead and useless.  We are not following Christ.

 

There is a mathematical equation present here. If compassion and mercy and love are on the inside of you and me, then they will display themselves on the outside. If compassion mercy and love are not displayed on the outside, then they are not present on the inside. It’s a fact!

 

Ok, I get that . . . but here’s where I have trouble. There’s so much suffering in the world!  How can we even begin to do all that God requires of us?  Does he really expect us to bear the burdens of the world?

 

Jesus told a compelling story addressing just this question.  An expert in religious law asked him how to inherit eternal life.  Jesus responding by asking him what the law says.  The religious expert, quoting from the book of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength; and, love your neighbor as yourself.

 

After Jesus commended him for answering correctly, the religious expert asked, who is my neighbor?  And Jesus responded by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Jesus was a great storyteller, and this was one of his best.

 

Luke 10:30b-32 a Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits.  They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.  By chance a priest came along.  But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.  A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also pass by on the other side.

 

So here we have two church people – a priest and a volunteer – both church people.  We would expect both to help the man who lay, bleeding and helpless on the road.  But neither of them did.  Both ignored him and went on with their business.

 

Luke 10:33-35 Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.  Going over to him, the Samaritan cleaned his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.  Then he put a man on his own donkey and took him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, take care of this man.  If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here (NLT).

 

In Jesus Day, Jews hated Samaritans.  Jews considered themselves godly people and they considered the Samaritans to be children of Satan. The two groups had been bitter enemies for centuries.  Jews considered Samaritans to be half-breeds, both physically and spiritually, and they openly despised them.  Jesus is telling the story to Jews. They were supposed to be the good guys, and the Samaritans were supposed to be the bad guys. But it was a Samaritan who helped the fallen man.

 

Luke 10:36-37 Now, which of these three would you say was the neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?  Jesus asked.  The man replied, the one who showed him mercy.  Then Jesus said, yes, now go and do the same (NLT).

 

So the least likely person, a Samaritan, help the injured man.  In this parable, Jesus made it clear that neither ethnic, religious, racial, or national boundaries exist for love.  According to Jesus, our brother, our sister, our neighbor, is whomever he places in our path.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that if your brother were sick you’d take care of him.  You’d do whatever was necessary to help him.  He’s not a burden, if he’s your brother. The same goes for your sister.  But even if you don’t view a person as your brother or sister, God does.

 

All the people of this earth are God’s family. Every person on the earth has been created and birthed first and foremost by God. He is our Father and we are his children, and therefore, we are brothers and sisters of one another.

 

Who is your brother?  Who is your sister?  Who is your neighbor?

 

Honestly grappling with this question may cause us to discover pockets of prejudice inside ourselves.  Can you say that you have no prejudice against Arabs, Jews, Asians, Hispanics, African Americans, Muslims, Easterners, Democrats, Republicans, you name it.

 

In the Christian church, we are taught to love everyone.  We are told to love homosexuals more than we hate homosexuality, to love Muslims even if we hate Islam, to love people who have had abortions more than we hate abortion.  We genuinely bear no ill will toward groups who are different from us.  We don’t think of ourselves as having enemies.

 

But the truth is, we all harbor prejudice toward one group or another. I find it very interesting that there are two doors that guard the entrance to the exhibits in the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.  One door is marked “Prejudiced”, and the other one “Unprejudiced”.  The door marked “Unprejudiced” is locked.  The point is that none of us, no matter how tolerant we think we are, has a purely unprejudiced mind.  Which character in the parable of the Good Samaritan best reflects your response to people in need?  Do you find it easier to help your own kind?  When was the last time you reached out to a complete stranger who needed your help?

 

So much of the American lifestyle is geared to make it easy to ignore the needs of the people around us.  For the most part, we travel in cars, zooming past our surroundings, eyes straight ahead.  When we do walk, were usually in a hurry, late for work, determined to be on time for appointment, rushing to check off everything on our to-do lists.  With our minds full of today’s worries, I ask myself, “What should I fix for dinner tonight?  I hope that check doesn’t bounce before I get to the bank.  My kids have outgrown their shoes again.  How can we afford another pair of tennis shoes after just three months?

 

Absorbed in our own thoughts, it’s easy to avoid the eyes of the man in a shabby clothes holding up a sign that says, will work for food.  But here’s a thought: what would happen if, just once, we didn’t look past them?  What if we looked into his eyes, even for a second?  What would we see?

 

When she was 16 and had just gotten her drivers license, her father warned her to never pick up a hitchhiker, saying, if I ever find out you’ve picked up a hitchhiker, I’ll take your drivers license away so fast, it’ll make your head spin.  She understood her father’s warning.  Females traveling alone have every reason to be wary of strangers.  She is now a middle-aged, middle-class Christian woman with a family of her own, and until one day recently, she had never picked up a hitchhiker.  But on this day, as she was traveling over a mountain road on her way to work, she passed a young man.  He had just left a car on the side of the road and begun walking in the opposite direction from the direction she was traveling.  Normally, she wouldn’t even have noticed him.  But on this day, as she drove by at 45 mph, she happened to look the stranger in the eye.  In that split second, she saw a flash of hope followed instantly by disappointment.  She kept on driving.

 

But a voice whispered, that guy needs help.  He was hoping you would help him.  Why aren’t you helping him?  Suddenly, she understood the absolute truth of James 4:17:

 

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. James 4:17

 

She slowed and turned the car around.  As she drove back toward him, she prayed, God, please be with us both.

 

She stopped and rolled down her window to see a man in his early 20s, tattooed and pierced, smelling strongly of cigarettes.  He explained that he had run out of gas and would be late for an MRI at the local hospital, some 10 miles away.  She invited him into her car; they introduced themselves and shook hands.  First, they drove 5 miles to the nearest gas station, where he asked to borrow a gas can.  His request was denied.  Then they drove to his mother’s house, where he found a gas can, and then back to the gas station, and finally to his abandoned car.  The entire incident lasted about 30 minutes.

 

During that time he asked where she worked, and when she told them she worked for a Christian publishing Company, he began to talk about God.  He talked about the hardships he endured in his 23 short years; he talked about faith; he talked about hope; he talked about a restoration of his faith.  Finally, as he was saying goodbye and thanking her, he said, people like you help me believe in God.

 

Movie clip: Amazing Grace 1:26:43 – 1:29:49.

 

So who does God want us to help?  Again, the Bible is clear:

 

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:8 – 9

 

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me

Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you also did not do for me.

Matthew 25:31-46.

 

If we want to connect with God, but are having a hard time finding him, we’ll find him at his local hangout – among his friends who are poor, hungry, oppressed, homeless, widowed, and orphaned. 

 

Our challenge is to open the doors of our lives and our church and invite pain and suffering in. Jesus did not absorb pain from a distance and neither should we.  We are to become the voice of those who have no voice in our society.

 

Slide – add each one as I say it.

 

• The poor and destitute – Psalm 140:12; Jeremiah 22:16; Galatians 2:10
• The widow – Exodus 22:22; Job 31:16 – 18; Psalm 146:9; James 1:27
• The alien and the refugee – Leviticus 19: 33 – 34.
• The homeless – Job 30 1:19 – 20.
• The elderly – Leviticus 19:32.
• Children at risk, especially orphans – Psalm 10:14; 68:5; James 1:27.

 

We live in a culture characterized by excess.  Americans routinely spend $3.50 for a couple of coffee.  $50 for a pair of tennis shoes.  $100-$600 for a mobile phone.  $500-$5000 for a TV.  The average cost of a wedding in this country is nearing $30,000.

 

At the same time, the world has never been in greater need of our generosity and love.  Let’s focus for a moment just on some of the children who need our help.

 

• Nearly half of the children in the world live in poverty.
• 12 children die of hunger related causes every minute.
• In the developing world

• One and three children doesn’t have adequate shelter.
• One in five has no access to safe water, and.
• One in seven has no access to health care.

 

We live in unprecedented times with unprecedented opportunities.  We really can be the heroes the world needs.  How?  By opening our eyes to see the needs around us.  By helping those God places in our path.  So today I urge you to begin with what you see.  Do what is in front of you.  Start in a small way.  Is there one thing you can do this week?  Has God placed one person in your path . . . one person, you can help in one small way? 

 

Mother Teresa said, “In this life we cannot do great things.  We can only do small things with great love.”

 

A great first step is to simplify our lifestyle to make room for greater involvement in the needs of others.  Maybe by tearing down your Starbucks habit from 5 cups a week to three, you could use the difference to sponsor an impoverished child.  It’s amazing to think that for only $8 a week through Compassion International, you can give another human being one of the greatest gifts imaginable: the gift of hope.  The taste of coffee pales by comparison.

 

Don’t overlook opportunities close to home.  Does someone in your family struggle financially?  Perhaps you have an aging father or mother who are too proud to admit that they’re having trouble paying for medications.  What a gift it would be to tell them you’ll pay for those meds from now on!

 

Get to know your neighbors.  Invite neighborhood kids over to play with yours, and why you’re at it, meet their parents.  Organize a neighborhood garage sale or block party.  When your neighbors go on vacation, offer to watch their house for them, pick up their mail and newspaper, and maybe even take care of their pets.  When neighbors face crisis, cook them a meal and also watch their kids.  Offer to drive neighbor’s kids to events that are common in the neighborhood.  Shovel a neighbor’s driveway or walkway.  The point is to look for opportunities to serve and to give away what God has given you; keep your eyes and ears open.  Ask your kids what’s going on with their friends – they probably know more than you ever could!  Finally, don’t refuse help when you need it!  And always send a special note of thanks.

 

Partner with organizations or individuals who are already involved by giving your time or writing a check each month.

 

The point is to ask God to help you see the needs around you each day. Take a moment to ask God to help you see the people he has placed in your path.  Your prayer can be as simple as this: Lord, open my eyes and let me see.

 

You have hope inside of you.  Inside of you, you have what somebody else needs; you have hope.  When you serve and give and love, you bring a little bit of up there down here.  You do that by loving God, by loving those that he loves.

 

Ways to serve:

 

• Compassion International is an organization that has made tremendous strides in breaking the cycle of poverty all over the world while fulfilling the great commission.  Compassion takes a holistic approach to releasing children from poverty.  By addressing their spiritual, physical, and educational needs.  Partnering with local churches and poverty-stricken communities, compassion reports that more than 132,000 children made professions of faith, in one year alone.

 

Compassion international offers many other ways for churches to get involved in helping the poor around the world.  See www.compassion.com or call one 800 – 336 – 7535 for details

 

• Invisible children Inc. is an organization founded by three young filmmakers from San Diego, California.  Their goal is to create awareness regarding the plight of the people of northern Uganda caught in a civil war between the government and the rebel group.  That makes extensive use of kidnapping children and making them child soldiers.

 

The campaign is centered on raising public awareness in the United States in an attempt to spur youth in action and to change the current policies of both the American and Ugandan governments.  See www.invisiblechildren.com for more details.

 

• Arms of love is a Christian ministry that establishes and operates homes that provide long-term care for orphaned, abandoned, and abuse children in a family environment.  See www.armsoflove.org