Happenings and opportunities for the coming week
Sunday, Feb. 20th 4:00 PM ... Golden Age Meeting - Library
6:00 PM ... Youth Fellowship
Tuesday, Feb 22nd 7:00 PM... Bible Study
Thursday, Feb. 24th 7:00 PM ... Choir Practice
Sunday, Feb. 27th 9:15 AM ... Sunday School Opening
9:30 AM ...Sunday School
10:30 AM...Worship Service
ALL DAY SUNDAY ...STUFF THE TRUCK
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
Monday, Feb. 21st ... Michelle Burton
Wednesday, Feb. 23rd ... Dalton Spurrier & Jonathon Neese
Saturdat, Feb. 26th...Charlie Black & Suzanne Clodfelter
THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT
For the week of February 20, 2011
It is not at all unusual for athletes to do some boasting before the competition. I imagine that it’s a very natural thing, even though some, perhaps, go to extremes. We are all aware of some boxers who have almost made their bragging and bravado into an art form. Some are even as well known for their bragging outside the ring, as they are for their success in the ring. Who can ever forget Mohammed Ali’s “I dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee!”
Sports announcers love to have guests, whether boxers, quarterbacks, NASCAR racers, coaches or team owners on their show, sometimes weeks in advance of an event, to sort of “pump-up” the audience. It not only gets the competitors juices going, it gets our juices going as well. We love it.
Soldiers frequently face combat with the same attitude, the same feeling of invincibility. We would worry if our young men went off to battle feeling already defeated even though they must all, surely, dread combat.
And the Christian is likewise challenged to sing praises to the Lord as we go, each day, to do battle with Satan. Often times we pledge, sometimes for all to hear and sometimes for only God’s ears, to be victorious in some contest we are having with temptation, perhaps it is eating less, eating better or getting more exercise. Maybe, hopefully, we have declared that this year we are going read the entire Bible, really read it, and not just turn the pages.
These are things for which we are both physically and spiritually rewarded, but, only if we do them. You are, perhaps, familiar with the saying, “If you can’t do the walk, don’t do the talk.”
I thought of this as I read Jesus quoting Isaiah 29:13 in Mark 7:7 (NLT), "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce...”
If our worship is to be demonstrated in our service to God then it must, at the very least, be equal to our boasting. Your Christian walk must match your Christian talk.
Sermon for Sunday, February 20, 2011
LEAVING THE “CITY OF REGRET”
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #8
Sermon Text: Mark 2:1-12
“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” He said to the paralytic, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
It’s one of those stories you see circulating on the Internet. The author is unknown, but the sentiments are universal. It’s titled The City of Regret:
“I had not really planned to take a trip this year, yet I found myself packing anyway. And off I went, dreading it. I was on another guilt trip. I booked my reservation on “Wish I Had” airlines. I didn’t check my bags, everyone carries their baggage on this airline. I had to drag them for what seemed like miles in the Regret City airport.
I could see that people from all over the world were there with me, limping along under the weight of bags they had packed themselves. I caught a cab to Last Resort Hotel, the driver taking the whole trip backward, looking over his shoulder.
Once there I found the ballroom where my event would be held: the Annual Pity Party. As I checked in, I saw that all my old colleagues were on the guest list:
• The Done family -Woulda, Coulda, and Shoulda
• Both of the members of the Opportunity family were there, Missed and Lost
• All the Yesterdays were there, too. There were too many to count, but all would have sad stories to share
• Shattered Dreams and Broken Promises would be there, too, along with their friends Don’t Blame Me and Couldn’t Help It.
• And of course, hours and hours of entertainment would be provided by that renowned storyteller, It’s Their Fault.
As I prepared to settle in for a really long night, I realized that one person had the power to send all those people home and break up the party… me. All I had to do was return to the present and welcome the new day! The City of Regret. Have you ever been there?
I wonder if the paralyzed man in today’s story from the Gospel of Mark was living in the City of Regret before he met Jesus. When we pick up the story, Jesus is preaching in Capernaum.
Hearing that he was in town, so many people gathered at the house where he was staying that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Some men came, bringing to Jesus a man who was paralyzed. Since they could not get the man to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” What an interesting thing to say to a paralyzed man: “Your sins are forgiven.” Could it be that this man’s physical condition was in part a product of a spiritual need? Could it be that his paralysis was due in part to his having taken up residence in the City of Regret?
We know that the way we think and the way we feel can have a paralyzing effect on us. People have had their bodies shut down because of powerful emotions. “Psychosomatic” we call it. It doesn’t mean that the pain or paralysis is imagined. It means that it originates from a hurt not to the body, but to the psyche.
Dr. Bernard Lown tells about a former patient who suffered from congestive heart failure. In spite of her condition, this woman led a relatively full life.
One day, a group of medical students visited this woman’s doctor during her checkup. The doctor mentioned to the students that this woman had T.S., or tricuspid stenosis, the technical term for her heart condition. Upon hearing the doctor’s words, the woman descended into a complete panic. She insisted that T.S. meant “terminal situation.” In her mind, the doctor had just announced that she was dying. Nothing the doctor said could convince her that he had meant otherwise. In a matter of hours, the woman died.
How we think and feel can have a crippling effect on us. That is not only true physically, but socially and professionally.
How many people live in the City of Regret today, looking back over their lives, and counting the times when they had the opportunity to better their lives, but failed to do so because they were paralyzed mentally and emotionally?
Dr. Edward Chinn tells about a Navy man who dreamed of writing stories for the movies. He wrote a screenplay about the naval hero John Paul Jones. He sent the screenplay to Julia West, who was then the story editor of Paramount Pictures. She rejected it. Later, this writer told Julia West how disappointed he felt from the rejection. He came to see that fear could be a paralyzer. He also learned that the best way to overcome the fear of failure was to go on with the determination to succeed.
In March 1933, this writer spoke to our nation. He was newly-elected President Franklin Roosevelt who said: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
Fear can cripple us. Millions of people these past two years watched their retirements shrivel as the stock market sank, perhaps you are part of that group. Many of these people were in 401k plans. Their stock was in their own companies and they were helpless to do anything but watch. There were millions of others, however, who could have acted to minimize their losses, but did nothing. They watched the market sink and they seemed powerless to even pick up a phone and say the magic word, “Sell.” They were like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. Today they are living in the City of Regret because they could not respond to a changing market environment. How we think and feel can have a devastating effect on us.
Here’s the second thing we need to see: Guilt is one of the most destructive forceses in people’s lives.
In our permissive society, we may not feel the weight of sin our fathers and mothers felt. Still, we need to recognize that many lives have been wrecked by the power of guilt. Guilt has the power to destroy. That is why confession and forgiveness have played such an important role in the history of Christian faith.
Have you ever wrestled with the guilt of having done something wrong and done nothing to correct that wrong? Perhaps there is the guilt of simply not forgiving another who has wronged you.
This man, brought to Jesus by his friends, lay on his bed paralyzed until he heard the Master say, “Your sins are forgiven.”
There are doubtless some of us who need to hear those same words of deliverance and peace. May I speak them to you this day in Christ’s name? You are forgiven. You are forgiven. No matter where your feet have taken you, you are forgiven. No matter whom you’ve hurt, you are forgiven. No matter how scarlet your sins, you are forgiven.
And that brings us to the last thing to be said: One of the keys to emotional, physical and mental health ia a commitment of your life to Jesus.
This is what salvation is: it is wholeness, wholeness of mind, body and spirit. It is a new beginning, a new beginning without the guilt, without the despair, without the complications of a life of sin.
Some of you may know the story of retail genius, J. C. Penney. In the early years of the Great Depression Penney lost a large part of his fortune and the fruits of thirty years of hard work.
He suffered a nervous breakdown. In the hospital, which he could ill afford, the 58-year-old businessman confronted his deepest fears and questioned his most dearly held values. He described later the turning point: “One night I became possessed of the strange idea that the end of life had come for me, and that before morning I would be gone. I took a sedative, and went to sleep at nine o’clock.
After an hour I awoke, still with the conviction that this was the last night on earth for me. I got up, wrote farewell letters to my family, returned to bed, and again fell asleep.
“To my surprise I was still alive the following morning. Feeling restless and apprehensive, I dressed and went downstairs to the dining room, intending to have breakfast.
The place had not yet been opened. I wandered disconsolately down the corridor. Presently the sound of singing led me to the chapel, where a small group of people was engaged in an early morning prayer meeting.
They were singing the old, familiar hymn: ‘Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take care of you.’
“Slipping inside, I sat down in one of the back seats. Someone read a passage of Scripture, which was followed by a prayer. Silently, yet in agony of spirit, I cried: ‘Lord I can do nothing! Will You take care of me?’
“Something I can only explain as a miracle happened to me in that quiet chapel. An appalling weight was lifted from my spirit, and I passed from darkness to light. I had entered the room paralyzed in spirit, and helplessly adrift. I left it with an exhilarating sense of relief from the thought of impending death and a reborn hope in life.”
J. C. Penney had walked out of the City of Regret, not of his own power, but by the grace of God. Like the man who was lowered through a roof long ago, Penney found deliverance and a new life.
That new life is available today to all who would trust in Jesus. Our emotions can cripple us. Guilt is one of the most destructive of emotions. Hear the words of Jesus to the paralyzed man: “Your sins are forgiven.”
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World
Amen
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