Sunday - 05/05/13 RWJ/Pottersville
UMC
Sermon: “Sacrificers”
The Early Church Series, Part 5 of 6
Scripture
Lesson: Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
Gospel
Lesson: John 14:23-29
Good morning brothers and
sisters! What a joy it is to be with you on this the Sixth Sunday in this
Easter Season. While I very much enjoyed learning and fellowshipping with my
classmates in Ohio last week, it is great to be back in New York with you all
here this morning! While I was in Ohio last week, I had friends there from
Texas, from California, from Alabama, from Missouri, from Michigan, and etc. and
etc. I learned and fellowshipped with brothers and sisters from all over these great
United States.
As I learned and spoke
with my brothers and sisters, I heard there stories of how God was doing great
things in their ministries. I heard about churches growing and the great
sacrifices that there all were making for the sake of Jesus Christ and his
kingdom. I then heard some of my colleagues feeling remorse that they aren’t
seeing their families as much as they would like to. That they have been
constantly trying to make time for their spouses and their children, but they always
seem to be working. That they feel like that they are so busy with work, with
ministry, and with seminary, that they have no time for anything else. For they
all are indeed great “sacrificers” for the kingdom.
In one of the first
worship services that we as student had at the seminary’s chapel last week, a
seminary faculty member that said, “I commend you all for sacrificing for the
Kingdom”. Then he said, “How are things going in Jerusalem”. He said, “Your
home is Jerusalem”. “Your spouse and your children live in Jerusalem, and if
things aren’t good in Jerusalem, than how can you expect things to be good elsewhere?”
In hearing this I was convicted in my heart and in my soul. I was convicted
because as a young pastor, I want to do great things for the Lord, yet
sometimes lately I feel like that I have been neglecting my own Jerusalem. In fact
in our actual class, one of my pastor friends said that his father was and still
is a pastor. He said that his father was and also still is “a committed pastor”.
He then said something that shocked me. He said that on the day of his college
graduation that his father could not make it, because he had to go and visit a
sick parishioner. That the day he left for basic training, that his father was
on the phone with a church trustee, and that he covered the receiver of the
phone quick and told his son, “good luck”. His father then immediately turned
away, and went right back to talking to the church trustee.
After we chatted about this
in class for a few minutes, I said to our teacher Dr. Stevenson, “Wasn’t our Methodist
founder John Wesley a bad role model for being a family man?” Dr. Stevenson
said, “yes in many ways he was”. You see our founder John Wesley, while a
tremendous pastor, leader, organizer, evangelist, and man of God, was often never
home. He was always out serving others, and he often neglected his own “Jerusalem”.
So while the early church
experienced persecution, while they were resilient, while they were a people of
“signs, wonders, and miracles,” and while they were “Kingdom Builders,” they
were also “Sacrificers”. Given this, before my trip to Ohio I was ready to come
in and preach this morning that we need to serve the kingdom at all costs. Yet
the Lord calls us to be fathers, mothers, husbands, and wives. If all we do is
sacrifice for others, then when do we take the time to sacrifice for our own
families? Further, when do we take the time to feed our own souls, and to take
our own Sabbath to rest and to restore ourselves?
During one of the other worship
services, Dr. Luther O’Conner stopped his riveting sermon that we preaching all
of the sudden, and his mood and his affect then changed all of the sudden. Then
after being silent for a few seconds, he just said, “I need to make a
confession”. He said, “I am so tired, so overwhelmed, and do not know how I am
going to do all the things I need to do”. He shed tears as he said these
things. He talked about how he invests so much time in his students, how he
invests so much time building the kingdom, and how sometimes in the process he
neglects his wife and kids because of his passion to serve. It was quite an
experience, as several students came up to hug Dr. O’Conner, as they said I
have also neglected my own “Jerusalem”. The next day, Dr. O’Conner was doing
scripture reflections, and when he finished, he brought his whole family in and
introduced them, and then he said, “I am going to take care of my family, my
Jerusalem”. Then he left the seminary for a little while to spend time with his
family.
The point of all of this is
that God wants us to sacrifice for him, and sacrifice for him boldly to build
the kingdom. The Lord blesses me each week when I drive 4-hours each way to
serve up here, but he doesn’t want us to give up that which he has given us to
tend to. He does not want us to give up our own “Jerusalem’s”. I have come
realize more and more this week that I could become a John Wesley, a famous and
well love preacher, like many of the other famous preachers that we adore, but that
often do not know their families very well? These men provided for their wives
and children well, but are also often the ones who don’t attend their son’ college
graduation because “they had to visit a parishioner”.
So folks after I do my visits after church today, I
am taking the rest of the night off to take my beautiful wife out to a nice
dinner, and to remember that if I cannot grow faith in my “Jerusalem” then I
have no business preaching to people here about their Jerusalem’s.
A good friend of my Jeff
who is originally from Brazil and is a United Methodist pastor like me, got
emotional in one of our class sessions this past week, as he said that he has
two little boys, and so often he is not home for them. He said that “this will
change this week when I return home”. Then before I left the seminary to head
to airport on Friday; well ok after I went to the Waffle House first, and then headed
the airport, Jeff gave me an enormous hug goodbye. Then as I went to walk away,
he grabbed my arm firmly and said Paul, “You’re a great pastor, and the
Methodist Church is darn lucky to have you, but make me a promise”. I said ok
Jeff what is it. Jeff than said, “Promise me that you will spend more time with
your wife and your family”. Then with tears rolling down his face as he was
convicted about his own family, he said, “your family needs you Paul. Your
family needs you”.
“Sacrificers” brothers and
sisters. Like the early church we need to sacrifice for the Kingdom, but the
Kingdom includes your own castle, your own “Jerusalem”. While I am committed to
making sacrifices so that people are changed by Jesus Christ, I need to do a
better job of sacrificing in my own kingdom, in my own “Jerusalem”.
When I first read the scripture from this morning
from the Book of Revelation before my trip, I thought about that “great getting
up morning” when Jesus come backs. Yet I had always thought about it as me
bowing alone before the Lord and receiving his love and his grace. If the Lord
comes back in my lifetime though, I don’t just want to bow before him alone I want
to bow before him while I am holding the hand of my beautiful bride.
When looking at the Gospel
reading from the Gospel of John from this morning Jesus said, “Those who love
me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and will come to them and
make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and
the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me”.
As your pastor, as a
Christian, I want to sacrifice and give, so that the people who come into this
place might be changed and filled, so that they might know Jesus better, but we
all need to be ministers first and foremost at home. I didn’t realize it until
I was among my classmates in Ohio, but I now realize that the sacrifice that I
am going to be making more of is not spending more time away from home, but
spending more time in my home. The early Christians were a family, were
communal, and loved each other. I am learning to realize that God’s kingdom
starts first in my own house, and from there, and only from there can I truly
offer a sacrifice that is pleasing to the Lord of life.
Jesus in the scripture
this morning leaves the apostles with peace, and tells that the Holy Spirit
will “teach them everything”. While the holiday of Pentecost that is coming up
soon was a great encounter with the Holy Spirit, and while the early church experienced
“signs, wonders, and miracles,” they want we all want. They want Jesus to be
present, in the flesh. Much like we need to be present more in the flesh for our
families, and this is something that the Lord is teaching me as young minister
to do better. Because as Dr. Stevenson said, “You can preach the horns off of a
Billy Goat, but if you don’t have a strong Jerusalem, you have nothing”.
I would like to close this morning with a story. This
story is called “Big Rocks,” by author unknown. Here is how it goes: “A while back I was
reading about an expert on subject of time management. One day this expert was
speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an
illustration I’m sure those students will never forget. After I share it with
you, you’ll never forget it either.”
“As this man stood in
front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a
quiz.” Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar and set it on a
table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and
carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to
the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone
in the class said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Really?” He reached under the table
and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the
jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between
the big rocks.”
“Then he smiled and asked
the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was onto him. “Probably
not,” one of them answered.
“Good!” he replied. And he reached under the
table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it
went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he
asked the question, “Is this jar full?” “No!” the class shouted. Once again he
said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until
the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What
is the point of this illustration?”
“One eager beaver raised
his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you
try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!” “No,” the
speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us
is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”
So, brothers and sister,
as we think about being sacrificers for God’s kingdom, where are you neglecting
being sacrificial? Where do we need to sacrifice, and are neglecting to do so?
Or maybe a better question as per the story is “What are the big rocks in your
life? Is it “A project that YOU want to accomplish? Time with your loved ones?
Your faith, your education, your finances? A cause? Teaching or mentoring
others? Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you’ll never get them in at
all.”
We need to sacrifice for
God and his kingdom, but this week and hopefully forever let us sacrifice in
those places that desperately need the time and energy that we have not been
giving them. Perhaps its prayers, perhaps it’s reading the Bible, perhaps its
spending time with your family. Whatever it is, this week put those large rock
in your jar first. I bring you this message in the name our Lord and savior
Jesus the risen Christ. Amen.
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