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Losing Breathless Gratitude
A sermon
by Rev. Jim Pardue
Interim Preacher, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Luke 7:36-47
I want to clarify
something that happened at the church last Sunday. I came up and stood in front
of the pulpit and did a little something and some people wondered about that. So
let me tell you the story.
When I first began
preaching, of course, I was out in small church. In small churches there’s not
much space in between the pulpit stand and pews or the chairs and I was asked to
speak and at that time, when I was just beginning, and I didn’t know much of
what to say or how to say it. So, I decided I would start off kind of easy. I
would start of with the Book of Revelation and I decided the theme, “Behold, I
come quickly.” And I stood up and I said, “My text today is Behold, I come
quickly,” and that’s the only thing that came. I didn’t remember my name,
couldn’t have given you my social security number—nothing. So, I just stood back
and thought about it for a moment and so I stood forward and I grabbed the side
of the pulpit stand and I said, “Behold, I come quickly.” Well, there was still
nothing. So, I stood back and at that time was running on the track in our
college and I said, “Our theme today is, “Behold, I come quickly” and I grabbed
the pulpit stand and it wasn’t nailed down. And it started moving forward. Now,
a person of any intelligence would have let it go, but I did not. And so there
was this lady, I’m sure who had been sitting there for years and years that was
the time when women were still wearing flowered hats to church and I went over
the pulpit stand and the flowers and the water went everywhere. Well, it was the
most embarrassing time in my young life and I turned to her and I said, “Oh, I’m
so sorry, I’m so sorry.” She said, “That’s all right, my fault.” Said, “You
warned me three times.”
So part of what I do
when I come to a new pulpit, I come and kind of shake it a little to make sure
that things are nailed down, at least for a while. Now that that’s clear let’s
see if we can do that with the scripture.
This is Luke chapter
seven, verse 36. It is an event that happened in the life of Jesus and out of it
he tells a great story and it’s that story that we’re going to turn our
attention to. And as I read, young people I’ll say a word or two of
explanation—sometimes they read things in the Bible and nobody explains it to
them and it doesn’t seem to make sense. So, let me do that for you, verse 36,
“Now one of the Pharisees” who were the right-wing religious group, “invited
Jesus to have dinner with him and so he went to the Pharisee’s house and
reclined.” What that means boys and girls is that when you eat, your mommy and
daddy say, “Sit up and eat with your fork.” Here in Bible times you laid down
and you held yourself up with this arm and you ate with the right hand. So, they
were eating at the Pharisee’s house and this lady appeared. Now, this is not
unusual, people did that all the time, they would come and see guests that would
be at famous peoples’ homes and “she brought an alabaster box of perfume and she
stood behind him at his feet weeping. She began to wet his feet with her tears,
then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When
the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said within himself, ‘If this man
Jesus were a profit, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman
she is, for she is a sinner.’”
It’s amazing how some
people can make such great judgments quickly when they meet somebody.
“Jesus answered, ‘Simon,
I have something to tell you.’ ‘Tell me, teacher,’ he said. ‘Two men owed money
to a certain money lender. One owed him five hundred denari the other fifty.
Neither of them had the money to pay back, so he canceled the debt of both of
them. Now, which one of them do you think would love him the most?’ Simon
replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the biggest debt canceled.’ ‘You have judged
correctly,’ Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do
you see this woman? I came into your house; you did not give me any water for my
feet.’”
It was here that again
Oriental custom, you took off your shoes and there was a little water there and
your host would have it for you.
“’But she did wet my
feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss.”
That’s the same as
shaking hands and people today still hug each other in the Middle East and kiss
each on the cheek.
“But this woman, from
the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put any oil on
my head.”
They would take a little
spot and put on top of the head because it was so hot there.
“But she has poured
perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you her sins have been forgiven, for she
loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
Dr. Sam James is a
member of this congregation. During the days of the Vietnam war, he was
president of the Baptist Seminary in South Vietnam. A part of that
responsibility is when the school ended and the people would go out to their
responsibilities, he would bring them all in, talk with them about it, try to
lead them to needy places. One of the young men was seemingly the star of the
group, he came in and Dr. James asked him where he was going to go and he said,
“I want to go up to the northern part around Da Nang.” And he said, “You
don’t want to do that, that’s still uncertain and unsafe and many times the
soldiers come over the line that divides the two Vietnams. So, you wouldn’t want
to do that.” He said, “Oh, but I need to do it. That’s where my family lives.
All the people I’ve known all my life, they live up there and I want go to them
and tell them about Jesus.”
I understand that the
word came back, what a wonderful job he was doing. People were crowding into the
church. One of those services when the pastor stood up to preach. There was a
big noise; people were standing outside and a big noise. They looked up and
their came some armed North Vietnamese soldiers. They came to the front, pushed
the pastor aside and said to them, “We do not want this man here. Now, you get
rid of him and if you do not, then we’ll get rid of him.” Well, you can imagine
what was going on all of the week. What’s he going to do? Is he going to stay?
Should we ask him to leave? They decided to leave it up to him. The following
Sunday everybody came. They said that the crowd was standing outside, the church
was full. What is the pastor going to do? And finally in the back you could here
the conversation, the pastor came through, took his place of responsibility,
went through the service until it was time for him to speak. And then in rushed
the three men, with guns. Said, “We told him for you to get rid of him and you
didn’t do it, now we’ll take care of it.” They walked him out of the small
church. There was a big tree outside. They threw him against the tree and all
three men emptied their guns into his body. When Dr. James heard about that, he
went up to visit that church and they took him outside under the tree, there was
a fresh grave and a cross with his name over it and the words etched that said,
“He loved to the end.”
Now, when Dr. James gave
that illustration, it had a tremendous impact upon me because I had just had a
difficult day. I had gone to a new church. I was aware that, as in all churches,
there were people whose names were on the church roll that were not even
attending anymore. And I asked the secretary if she would make appointments with
these people for me to visit all day long. I said, “Cut if off at the end, early
in the day, because I’m going to hear the missionary speak.”
Now, if you haven’t done
that recently, make sure that you spiritualize your life as high as it will go,
because you’re going to hear some of the strangest stuff you’ve ever heard in
your life. Someone said—a lot of people have their name on the church roll when
they are young and they become a Christian. When they get a little older, they
get married, then they die and they have a service in the church. And it’s said
the only time they have a relationship with the church is when they get wet,
they get rice in their hair or dirt in their face and that’s the only
relationship they have with the church.
And I just heard all
kinds of things. I thought that if anybody would take sort of relationship with
their family or with their work, they would be divorced from their family and
fired from their work because how can you say that this is important and a part
of my life if it means nothing to you to even attend.
So, I went back home and
I said, “Lord, I don’t understand. How is it that a person in Vietnam can come
to such a love and faith in Jesus Christ that he’s willing as a young man to
pour out his life and die for Jesus and here are people—many of them wealthy,
all of them educated, all of them blessed in so many ways by God—they don’t even
care enough to even come to His house, even though their name is on the church
roll.” And I said, “Lord, we worship the same Lord. How can this be?”
That was when, one night
in the middle of the night, I read Luke chapter seven and what Luke says is that
the only relationship that is going to strengthen your life is when you come in
such deep gratitude for what he has done for you that you love him with all your
heart. It means that you’re going to surrender yourself so to him that there is
no sacrifice too great, no challenge too overwhelming that you’re not willing to
put him first within your life.
Jesus turned and he
said—let me tell you the story, here are two men that owed a debt. The man comes
and forgives, which one is going to love him the most? The one who feels the
most forgiven. He said you’re right. He said let me tell you who’s going to feel
more deeply in love with me? The one who has felt that his sins are forgiven,
that he has come to understand a new relationship with God because of his
greatness and goodness. So you’re here today, the question that I want to ask
you is how deep is your love for the Lord? Have you come to understand the
relationship is that built out of a sense of forgiveness?
So, here is the message
for the morning. If you and I are going to love him, we’re going to first of all
have a deep sense of our own sinfulness. It was P. T. Forsythe who said it this
way, “We at church are the kindest people who have never known the soul’s
despair or its breathless gratitude.”
Have you ever set down
before God and said, “Dear God, I love you, I don’t want to do anything to hurt
you. I’ve already hurt you enough.” The very essence of the Bible is Jesus on
the cross for my sins and yours. And if that doesn’t motivate you and that
doesn’t make you want to love him then there’s no other story to tell you. What
it tells you is the hardness of your own heart.
Now, part of this
problem is that we have a very poor definition of what sin means. Most of us, if
we were to take a test, and I would say tell me what does the word sin mean? You
would say breaking God’s law. Gave us the Ten Commandments and we break
them—that’s sin. That answer is partially right but partially wrong. And the
wrong is what gets us in trouble. Sin is more than breaking God’s Law. Sin is
breaking God’s heart. He did not make the Law to put us in a box. He gave us the
Law for the same reason that you tell your kids to be careful, you’re driving
tonight or do this in school or do this and help—why do you do that? Because you
love them. And God loves you and God wants you to return his love and once you
fall into the kind of love that will strengthen him, then you begin to find the
basis to love him back.
The second reason that
we have trouble is, not only we don’t know the definition; our problem is we
don’t have the right light. I have understood from the very beginning, as I have
been around thousands of people in my ministerial life, that the person who
understands the depth of their own condition is a person who has received light
from the Bible. If you don’t know what the Bible says, if you’re not deep in the
word, then you have very little light and therefore you can’t shine on it.
I like the old story
about man who found a girl at work that would go out with him, he was so
impressed he went out and bought him a real nice suit, made a date with her, got
his flowers, was walking down the street to get to her house. It had been
raining the day before. A car came by; hit a pothole and water came all over his
nice new suit. He stood around and looked he said, “Well, not too bad.” He
walked down a little further and got under a street light and he looked down and
he said, “Worse than I thought.” Went into the living room of his girlfriend’s
house and he looked down and he said, “Oh my God, I’m ruined.” Now what’s the
difference? One word “light.” The man who is in the darkness, he doesn’t
understand God’s principles and God’s word—no wonder he can’t see. When you get
a little further, the light is better and you begin to see and then you go on
out to where you can see it. In the light you begin to understand how dirty the
thing is. And whenever you begin to understand how God has given guidelines for
living and we’re not doing it and he reaches down to forgive us—then we begin to
understand how deep, deep is his love for us.
When I pastored in
another state, I would often invite people who were well-known to come and share
on a special occasion a testimony. One of the men I invited was a man who went
by the name of Tubby. Tubby was one of the best-known Senators in our state. I
asked him to come and share his testimony.
He started out telling
about his life before. He said, “If you knew me real well and you went in the
first part of my business, you would think everything is alright.” “But,” he
said, “if you went to the second part of my business—that’s where all of my
gambling machines were. And if you really knew me, you went to the third part of
a building and if you knew me well I could arrange for you to have a man or a
woman for yourself.”
Tubby said he came home
from work one day and as he opened the front door, his wife was there. She had
her suitcases and he said, “Have I missed something, are you going somewhere?”
She said, “Yes, I’m going.” She said, “Tubby, I have done everything I know to
do. We’ve talked and you don’t listen and you don’t change and I just can’t live
in that kind of situation.” So she got in the car and she said, “I’m going to
Mother’s house if you want to talk sometime.”
Tubby said that it was
like being hit up side the head—even though they had talked he didn’t realize it
was that sincere. And so he said he sat down and crossed his legs and uncrossed
his legs and he just couldn’t be happy and he finally decided he’d go out and
mow the lawn and he forgot it was eight o’clock at night and it was the month of
January. He ran up and down and then he said he went inside, reached in the
refrigerator, got a can of beer and he said, “I’ve been drinking all of my
life.” He said, “I drank some beer and for the first time it made me sick at my
stomach.” And he said, “I sat down back in my chair and after a while,” he said,
“I just fell down on the ground.” And he said, “Dear God, you know I haven’t
been living for you but tonight I want to give my heart and my life to you.”
What Tubby didn’t know
is that his wife didn’t go home to see Momma. She went to the First Baptist
Church where she was a member and where the pastor and she were friends. She
told him what was going on. He went inside and she said, “We have a special
prayer request.” And said, “Tonight we’re not going to have my Bible study we’re
just going to pray.” And the wife and 300 people got down on their knees and
spent 30 minutes praying for Tubby. Soon as she got back home to her mother’s
house the phone call came and he said, “We need to talk, I think I’ve got it
right.”
Now when he told that
long testimony, I looked down and realized that he had his glasses off. Tears
were going down his cheek and he turned and then he said. “I’m sorry that I
cried.” And then he said, “No, I’m not.” And I’ve always remember the last
sentence of his testimony, he said, “I hope I never get over what Jesus has done
for me.”
You know what our
trouble is? We’ve gotten over it. We’ve come to the place where we stand at the
foot of the greatest event that happened in the history of world, where Jesus
looked down and he recognized that my sins and yours were causing his death on
the cross and we have heard that and have understood it in our life and yet
whenever we come to say what’s wrong with me, the question is we’ve gotten over
it. We don’t love him. We don’t love him because of what he’s done for us. That
illustration goes with another.
A lady called me one day
and she said, “My husband doesn’t go to church and I’d like you to come by and
see him.” And as soon as she said that she said, “Now he’s a good man.” And I
said, “Fine.” So we made an appointment and I went to see them. We sat down and
I said to Sam, I said, “Sam, I understand that you’ve been thinking about the
Lord.” The wife chimes in, “Now you understand, Pastor, he’s a good man.” And
every time I said something, she raised her hand, she said; “Now you know he’s a
good man.” She circled that couch 20 times —I never could have lead him to the
Lord because she kept telling him, “You’re okay in the presence of God.” I want
to tell you that none of us are. I hope that you never get over it.
Second word, the high
cost of forgiveness. My, what it cost to forgive us. It means so much that he
had to come—that God has had to send his own son and he’s come that you and I
may have life and we may have it more abundantly and it cost the death of his
son on the cross. And once you begin to understand how much it cost him—my, what
a difference it will make.
Have you ever thought
what it is when somebody you love so deeply and then you’ve hurt, for them to
turn around and say, “I forgive you.” In the matter of Christ, it meant your
heart. It meant that you had to come to give your all to him. Part of my faith
in the Lord is that in the times that I get alone with him I just simply say,
“Lord, I couldn’t have made it without you and I thank you and praise you for
what you have done for me.”
He’s forgiven me. It’s
not that God is some big eraser in the sky that just goes back and forth. It
means so much that he has done it. You’re in a car, big sign, stop, speed limit,
35—you go 55, go through the red light, there’s a little kid on the other side
that didn’t see you coming and you ran over him. I come running out the door and
I said, “You broke the speed limit, you broke the stop sign, you hit my child.”
How easy is it then to look in his face and say, “But that’s all right, I
forgive you.”
Oh no, my friend,
forgiveness is hard and it’s hard to stand before almighty God and know he’s
forgiven you, but once you do—you’ll fall madly in love with him. There is a
painting; it’s a picture of Jesus going up some steps. Behind him is this woman.
Jesus is looking this way, the woman is looking back out and in the background
there are some of her lovers. She’s holding on to the hand of Jesus with this
hand and doing like this with this hand and underneath the words, “Let me go.”
Let me go. He loves me, he needs me. Let me go. Dear friend once you fall madly
in love with Jesus it’s the only antidote to be able to stand against the world
who’s always pulling you away from him.
So I wanted to ask you,
“Are you willing to hang on to him and to love him for what he’s done for you?
Have you gotten over it?” Maybe tonight you need to come and say, “Lord, I’ve
turned so away from you. I need to come; I stood one time at the altar at First
Baptist. I want to stand again. I want to say, ‘Lord, I love you.’” Some of you
in this room today that need to come and move your life and membership to this
church. You’ve been attending, you need to come on. And some of you perhaps need
say, “I want to be baptized.” We’re going to stand together and sing a hymn of
invitation. I’m going to ask God to move into your heart. I’m going to ask you
to come today and give yourself afresh to him. Will you?
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