Leave None Behind

A sermon by Rev. Jim Pardue
Interim Preacher
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, March 2, 2008

Last Sunday night was Oscar night in Hollywood.  You are aware that once a year the motion picture industry gives awards to people who have produced the most important films, or have done the best job in being a star in those films.  And you know a little bit about how that goes.  They name five people in each category.  And then they announce who it is and finally at the end they open it up and say this is the winner. 

In 1981 was an Oscar night that many of you remember, and many individuals who don’t remember anything else about Hollywood would remember what I’m getting ready to tell you. 

It was the time when they opened up the best picture of the year.  It is opened and then the man said the winner is “Chariots of Fire.”  If you remember that movie, it is the story of a young man who felt committed most of his life that God was calling him for something special.  But he also learned that as he grew up into a young man he began to understand that he could run faster than anybody else around.  He actually went in for the Olympic tryouts found out that he was number one and he was asked by the country of Scotland to take him to France where he could represent England in the 440 yard dash. 

The man’s name is Eric Liddle.  When he got to Paris, he found out that the race was going to be on Sunday.  He went to the leaders and he told them, he said “I have come, I’m appointed by my country but I can’t run a race on Sunday.  Sunday is the day I’ve dedicated to God.  So, is it possible some way that I can run on Monday?” 

Well, the people began to stir and how can this be… and finally they agreed and on Monday the young man of conscious was the man who ran the 440 yards and he came in number one and set a world’s record.

Well, not only did he become known because he came in number one, but he was known because he was a man who had a conscious and man with a commitment to God. 

When he came back, they said he could have become a multi-millionaire.  Everybody wanted his name to use and everybody wanted his name on their products.  But Eric said no, he said, “God called me to be a minister.”  And if you go to the Hope Park Presbyterian Church in St. Andrews, Scotland, they will tell you that one of their pastors was named Eric Liddle.  Eric was pastor of the church which was right off from St. Andrew’s University.  He stayed there for years as their pastor and then went to them and said, “God has called me to be a missionary in China.”  He went to Tianjin, China.  He worked in schools and finally felt that God wanted him to go out into the country, and so he began to go out and do evangelistic work out in the back parts of China.

In 1943, they looked up one day and the Japanese forces in WWII were in their town taking over all of the people who lived there.  I never knew the rest of the story.  I had the opportunity to go study at St. Andrews and so I said, “I’ve read this story and heard about it, now I want you to tell me the rest of the story.” 

When he was arrested, thrown into a POW concentration camp, there were 1800 people in an area of 150 by 180 yards.  There was no water, no food, there was no sewage.  The only way that they got anything to keep them alive was a guard would come out once a day and throw food from a bucket over a fence, give them a little water and they were to stay there not knowing how long. 

Eric, when he was there began to be the minister to everyone - but particularly to the children.  And they said that everyday he would get out and play with children and then he would sit down and tell them about God. 

One morning they were waiting for Eric to come out.  Here’s this athlete – bright, young – waiting for their special friend to come out and he didn’t come.  And they went inside and realized that the athlete in his early 30’s had died. 

They said that the pall bearers that day were the men, but the honor people who went in front of the casket were all of the children, because here was a man who had ministered to them and helped them to know about Jesus Christ. 

Another part of the story which I never heard was that there were two men in the concentration camp and they escaped and they said to themselves, “You know what were not going to do… we could go and maybe find the American forces that are coming across China.  We’re not going to do that.  We’re going to try to steal a short wave radio.  We’re going to learn what’s going on all around us and we’re work some way to try to get the word down to Eric and the other leaders in the concentration camp.” 

So these two Americans stole a short wave radio, went up in the mountains and listened so that they could find out what was going on.  What they found out was that in the camp one of the Japanese guards was a Christian and what they would do in the night is that they would listen to the radio broadcast.  The Japanese man would then take a little capsule and write a little code, stick it up his nose and go in to see how the prisoners were.  And he would always say, “Oh, I’ve got a cold today.”  And he would blow his nose and out would come the capsule and they would sit there and read it.  And it has been said that they probably knew when the Americans were going to get there before the Americans did. 

The Americans did come, release all of the rest of the people who had not died, and somebody asked the two men, “Why did you do that? They could have found you, they could have killed you, why would you hang around and try to get word to these people in the concentration camp?”  The person who wrote the story said the two men looked at him in almost disbelief, “Why would you ask a question like that?”  And then this word which is etched in history… “We could not go off and leave these people behind.”

Now, let’s look at our story from the Bible, 2^nd Kings chapter seven.  In Biblical times when there were wars between different groups, what they would do is that one group who had greatest amount of power would come in and surround the city.  Then they would wait until the people literally starve to death, and then they would go in. 

The story that I will allude to today is one of those stories.  The people were inside the city, the army was around them, they were all starving to death.  And then God did a miracle.  God created such a noise one day that these people thought that it was another army that was coming after them.  So what they did was just leave everything and run as far and as fast as they could.  Then these outside that group – not inside the city, but outside – they always asked the lepers to be out there.  They thought it was contagious and they pushed them away, and you live out there.  And one day, these men who had leprosy, came upon this camp.  The people were afraid, they had run off.  All the food was still there… and listen to what they story says.

"The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it.”  Listen to this, “Then they said to each other, ‘We're not doing what is right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let's go at once to the royal palace.’"

Here were these men not knowing where the rest of them were said, “We’re going to stay around until we can get word and food to these people that we will be able to save them.  We will not leave until they are taken care of.”

This story has been woven into American history.  9/11, an airplane hits two towers in New York City, the whole place explodes, fire is going everywhere, you are not knowing whether the place is going to fall in or not. And you look on television, and my God, there goes firemen up. And for those who lived through the experience, they asked them what were they trying to do and they say we have a code as firemen, we will not go off and leave them; we want to make sure everyone is reached.

Not very far from here last year, there was a coal mining accident; there were nine men who were missing.  Every morning coal miners went in looking and they said, “What are you doing?” and they said, “We have a code, we’re not going to go off and leave until everybody is able to go off together.”

Many of you have been up to Washington D.C.; you’ve gone to the Vietnam Memorial.  One of the last times I was there, there was a hulk of a man with his old army clothes, had the beret on and he was sitting there crying.  And I heard a man walk past him and said, “Sir, why are you crying?”  He said, “Do you see that name?”  And he took his fingers went across it like this… “Do you see this man?  He drug me out.  So I would be saved, but died in the process.  And I come once a year to thank the man for what he did for me.”

Isn’t it interesting that fire departments, coal miners, military – all have a basic code… we will not go off and leave the men in our group. 

What I hope will be written in your memory today is that as a believer in Jesus Christ, you will make a commitment to God and to the people around you – you will not go off and leave them.  You go on to Heaven, but they didn’t make it.  They didn’t make it, but not because they could not have been reached, but because they were not, because people didn’t care enough to reach out to them.  My, what a sad story that is going to be.  And one of the commitments you ought to make, is to say “Dear God, I pledge to you again today, there will not be a person in my household, there will not be a person where I work, there will not be a person in the community that I will not do everything I can to win them to Jesus Christ.” 

There are people who have left this church, they have gone all around the world motivated by that one thing – I want to tell everybody in the world about Jesus Christ.  My, what a difference it would be if you would do it. 

We have been blessed in our family.  Our only daughter is a missionary with Southern Baptists.  They left the states ten years ago; nearly eleven now, went to what is called the poorest nation in the world – which is Mozambique.  They lived there six years and then were transferred down to South Africa and they live in Cape Town.  Every Wednesday, my daughter and another missionary go over to kind of a rugged area where 40 thousand people are jammed in tin roofs and cardboard.  But many of them have a child who has very much difficulty with their body.  And they go every Wednesday and minister to them. 

This past Wednesday afternoon, we got a phone call and realized it was my daughter on the other side, and said, “Amy what’s happened?”  “Well, I want to tell you that while we were there with the handicapped children that two men broke into the door, they had guns.  Pointed the guns, took everything that we had, stole the missionary car, and we wanted you to know that we are all right.”

One thing that I understood better Wednesday than I’ve understood in a while – the reason that she then ended by saying everything’s okay, we’re going to stay on and do what God has called us to do. 

That’s not a one-time story; there are thousands of people around the world who are doing that.  Who care so deeply for others, they don’t want to have anybody who hasn’t heard the story, anybody who doesn’t understand how you become a Christian, and everybody will have the opportunity to come to know Him.  “I will not go and leave somebody else behind.” 

One of the best friends that I had was Dr. Carl Bates who for many years was the esteemed pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charlotte.  Dr. Carl said one day he was praying and he said, “Oh God, fill me afresh, oh God, fill me afresh.”  And Carl said, “I heard God say, ‘Carl, as little as you’re planning to do, you’ve got all you need now.’” 

Do you understand if this reaching every person that you can for Jesus Christ – if that’s not priority, then God is not going to empower you to do what you’re not committed to do.  My, how today, you need to say, whoever they are, wherever they are; we want to help them to come to know Jesus Christ.

I went out to a small town to lead a revival, it was a few minutes before seven o’clock on a night I’d spoken to all the fellows who were standing over here, and I looked over this way, and it was the most rugged looking fellow I’d seen in a long time.  Nothing seemed to fit, and what seemed to fit seemed to be fitting on the wrong piece of the body.  You know – it just didn’t fit.  And I was in a little hurry anyway, and I said well, I think I’ll just go on in.  I got in the front door of the church and then I thought, “that’s not right, don’t do that.”  So I turned back out and went over and talked to him. 

He said, “I look funny, don’t I?”  I said, “Yeah, tell me your story.”  It was a story of abuse of the body and abuse of the spirit.  He said, “But I want to share something with you.” He reached in his pocket and he gave me a letter.  “I want to tell you this story then I want you to read the letter.” 

He said, “I abused my body and abused my life and abused everybody around me.  But the people in this church came to me in so many different ways and said we care for you and love you in Jesus Christ, and just a couple of months ago I gave my heart and life to Jesus. I was baptized in this church.”

And he said, “When I was baptized I said, ‘Lord you gave me one son, he lives in Houston Texas, and I’m going to go tell him the story myself.’” 

He said he saved up his money and got on a bus and went to Houston.  He said he sat around and the son said, “Dad what did you come over here for?”  He then told him the story of how he’d come to know Christ and how he’d been baptized.  He said, “I wanted to ask you if you would come to church with me tomorrow.”  The boy said, “No daddy.  I know you’ve got enough problems, and I don’t want to go.”  He said, “Is it alright if I take the two grand-girls?”  They said, “yeah, if you’ll get up and get them out – we like to sleep in on Sunday.” 

Saturday night he ironed those two little girls’ dresses.  Got them up the next morning and had them breakfast and had everything ready and had ribbons in their hair.  He said, “I put one hand in this six year old, and this one in the eight year old and stepped outside and found the first person and said, ‘Can you tell me where a Baptist church is?’”  He said, “I walked for a mile and a half with two girls holding on to my hands. I bet everyone was saying ‘don’t he look funny?’”  He said, “I took them to Bible study class and took them to church. And then we came on back home.”

This is the letter:

Dear Dad,

We’d like to pay your way to come to Houston.  Because next Sunday night Millie and I are going to be baptized.  And we want you here to read the scripture.

Do you know what reached the man who said, “I look funny?”  You know who reached his son who said, “I don’t want anything to do with God or anything to do with church?”  It’s a four-letter word.  It’s C-A-R-E.  They got past all the barriers because they understood that they cared for him in Jesus Christ. 

Outside of this wall, there are people after people who need the touch of caring.  And I urge you today to let the Spirit of God write that within your heart.  It’s all of what Jesus is about.  You’re never going to understand Him, until you understand there’s not a person beyond his reach.  There’s not anybody that he’s going to turn his face on and He’s sending you in His name to reach them for Jesus Christ.