4/17/05 Psalm 145:16 Title: Loving Hearts, Open Hands
4/17/2005
Text: Psalm 145:16
Title: Loving Hearts, Open Hands
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
This past week 35 members of this congregation continued on in their 50 day walk with Jesus, a walk that started on Easter Day and will end on Pentecost. We spent time in daily devotions and small group Bible studies, learning about the relationship that giving has with God’s command to his church, to go and make disciples.
What was different about this week’s Bible study than the previous week’s studies was that I do not think that we really discovered any thing new. We read that God tells us that it is better to give than receive, but we already knew that. We read that we are to give money for God’s work, but we already knew that. We found out that we are to give, in other words use, whatever talent we have to further God’s kingdom, but we already knew that. We saw that we are to give to God the best we have, but we already knew that. We read that we are not to put our trust in earthly things, but we already knew that. We read that sometimes we have to dig down really deep into our pocketbooks in order to do God’s mission, but we already knew that. Last, but not least we read that God loves a cheerful giver, but we already knew that too.
I think that even those that choose not to take part in this past week’s devotions and Bible studies probably for the most part know those things too. It might not have appeared that we learned anything knew last week, that maybe it was even a waste of time, but it was not a waste of time, for it brought up a question that begs to be answered. Why is it that if we already know those things, we are for the most part not doing them? Could it be that we are like Dennis the Menace, the cartoon character?
Frank Ketchum, creator of Dennis the Menace, once described Dennis’ growing up process this way. “Every year Dennis celebrates his sixth birthday. And every year he blows out his candles and poof, he is five again for another year.” The amazing thing about Dennis’ birthday is that he has been blowing out those six candles for over 45 years. He refuses to grow up.
We can laugh at his lack of progress, but suppose Dennis was more than simply a figment of Frank Ketchum’s imagination. Suppose that he was our neighbor and at 50 still walked around in his sneakers, still carried his slingshot in his back pocket, and was still driving his next door neighbor Mr. Wilson to distraction.
I do not believe that too many people would be amused at his antics. We would all be thinking, Grow up Dennis. When are you going to get real and act like a mature man that you should be? I think that we would all agree that it is not a good thing to remain stuck thinking like a young child. We know that we must as human beings become mature in our thinking and behavior, so that we reach our full potential. We just expect a 5 year old to grow up into a mature person.
Well, that is exactly what our heavenly Father expects of those who call themselves Christians. He expects them to grow in their faith. Oh, he knows that they will make some terrible messes, and he expects them to look to him to clean them up. He knows that they will get hurt at times, but he has high hopes that they will run to him with their hurts. But, he also expects them to have a spiritual appetite, and he invites them to look to his Word to satisfy that hunger.
You see God wants his disciples to be mature disciples, for it only when you have become spiritually mature that you can reach your full potential as a human being. I am afraid that too many Christians are like Dennis the Menace in that every year as they celebrate their spiritual birthday they blow out their candles and poof, just like Dennis they remain a spiritually immature for one more year. It is as the Bible puts it, they just never proceed past the milk stage of spiritual food.
Do not get me wrong, they are as loved and saved as those that are spiritual giants in his family. There is a problem though in remaining spiritually immature. You see those who remain that way never get to experience more than the tiniest part of what Jesus wants them to experience.
For you see, he has loaded his banquet table with the best of spiritual meats, vegetables, and other delicacies. He invites them to eat, but they sit at the corner, sucking on their spiritual milk bottle, instead of diving into the banquet that will give them the spiritual energy they need to overcome all that life throws at them.
Maybe, there are some sitting here today that are spiritually immature Christians who have been sucking on that bottle of spiritual milk for way too many years. Maybe today is the day to get rid of the bottle and belly up to the table, but you are afraid to.
If you are afraid, you do not have to be. Maybe you just do not know where to start, so I would like to give you some suggestions on how to get started, suggestions that helped me almost 30 years ago to start on my walk with Jesus, which by the way lit such a fire in me, that I developed an unstoppable hunger for more and more of God’s soul food.
Remember the devil is not going to like it, so it might not be easy to start. The first thing you need to do is start with prayer. Not just a quick passing prayer, but a deep meaningful talk with God. Talk to him as you would a good friend, who knows, really knows what is best for you. You do not need a set pattern, just pour out what is on your heart. Ask him to work in your life, and then take some time and listen to him as he speaks to you through his Word and those you know who are more spiritually mature.
The second thing you do is to start attending one of our small group Bible studies or Sunday morning Bible studies. We have two small groups meeting on Monday, two on Wednesday, and one Saturday morning. Times and locations are listed in your service folder. Do not be afraid if you do not know your Bible or always understand what it is saying. That is why we call it a Bible study, for we are all learning about God and his will for us.
You see, studying his Word is the only way you can become spiritually mature, because as our first daily devotion this past week put it, God opens his hands to you in his Holy Scriptures. Unlike us, who are naturally grabbers, taking everything we can, God is a giver and what a giver, he is.
God first gave us a wonderful world to live in. It might not be that wonderful of a world right now, but when he created it and populated it with Adam and Eve and all of its animals it was a perfect world. Even after Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge he did not close his hands to them. He opened his hands as he clothed them and then gave them the promise of a Savior that would pay the price for the sin that they had committed.
God did not stop there though, for throughout the Old Testament we see that he continually opened his hands, providing for his chosen people, as he continues to do today as he daily provides us with all we need to sustain our lives and souls.
When Jesus came to live as one of us he opened his hands as he fed and healed. Oh, he could have healed without touching them, but he chose not to. He went to those who desperately needed his healing with open hands and touched them, the blind, the lame, the leper, and even the dead. He touched them just as he touches us today through those who he has put on this earth to heal our broken and wounded bodies, minds, and souls.
But one day he was taken to a hill called Golgotha, where those wonderful healing and forgiving open hands of Jesus were nailed to the cross for our sake. Even though those who nailed him to the cross that day thought they had permanently closed his hands, he showed them differently, for he rose from the dead and showed himself to his disciples, opening his hands so that they could see the nail prints.
What a loving God we have, who continues to take our lives in his loving open hands, who continues to forgive us time and time again, as we sin against his will. And because of that we are to learn from his open hands to open our hearts so that our hands will be open to do his will.
Giving, that is what it is all about, his giving to us everything we need for our body and soul, and our giving up of our pride, our selfish ambitions, our desire for control, our false gods, all those things we rely on, giving them all up to him, so that we can become the givers that God wants us to be. Amen
Frank Ketchum quote was taken from “I Believe, But I Still Have Questions.” by Jane Fryar. Published by Concordia Publishing House 1994
Text: Psalm 145:16
Title: Loving Hearts, Open Hands
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
This past week 35 members of this congregation continued on in their 50 day walk with Jesus, a walk that started on Easter Day and will end on Pentecost. We spent time in daily devotions and small group Bible studies, learning about the relationship that giving has with God’s command to his church, to go and make disciples.
What was different about this week’s Bible study than the previous week’s studies was that I do not think that we really discovered any thing new. We read that God tells us that it is better to give than receive, but we already knew that. We read that we are to give money for God’s work, but we already knew that. We found out that we are to give, in other words use, whatever talent we have to further God’s kingdom, but we already knew that. We saw that we are to give to God the best we have, but we already knew that. We read that we are not to put our trust in earthly things, but we already knew that. We read that sometimes we have to dig down really deep into our pocketbooks in order to do God’s mission, but we already knew that. Last, but not least we read that God loves a cheerful giver, but we already knew that too.
I think that even those that choose not to take part in this past week’s devotions and Bible studies probably for the most part know those things too. It might not have appeared that we learned anything knew last week, that maybe it was even a waste of time, but it was not a waste of time, for it brought up a question that begs to be answered. Why is it that if we already know those things, we are for the most part not doing them? Could it be that we are like Dennis the Menace, the cartoon character?
Frank Ketchum, creator of Dennis the Menace, once described Dennis’ growing up process this way. “Every year Dennis celebrates his sixth birthday. And every year he blows out his candles and poof, he is five again for another year.” The amazing thing about Dennis’ birthday is that he has been blowing out those six candles for over 45 years. He refuses to grow up.
We can laugh at his lack of progress, but suppose Dennis was more than simply a figment of Frank Ketchum’s imagination. Suppose that he was our neighbor and at 50 still walked around in his sneakers, still carried his slingshot in his back pocket, and was still driving his next door neighbor Mr. Wilson to distraction.
I do not believe that too many people would be amused at his antics. We would all be thinking, Grow up Dennis. When are you going to get real and act like a mature man that you should be? I think that we would all agree that it is not a good thing to remain stuck thinking like a young child. We know that we must as human beings become mature in our thinking and behavior, so that we reach our full potential. We just expect a 5 year old to grow up into a mature person.
Well, that is exactly what our heavenly Father expects of those who call themselves Christians. He expects them to grow in their faith. Oh, he knows that they will make some terrible messes, and he expects them to look to him to clean them up. He knows that they will get hurt at times, but he has high hopes that they will run to him with their hurts. But, he also expects them to have a spiritual appetite, and he invites them to look to his Word to satisfy that hunger.
You see God wants his disciples to be mature disciples, for it only when you have become spiritually mature that you can reach your full potential as a human being. I am afraid that too many Christians are like Dennis the Menace in that every year as they celebrate their spiritual birthday they blow out their candles and poof, just like Dennis they remain a spiritually immature for one more year. It is as the Bible puts it, they just never proceed past the milk stage of spiritual food.
Do not get me wrong, they are as loved and saved as those that are spiritual giants in his family. There is a problem though in remaining spiritually immature. You see those who remain that way never get to experience more than the tiniest part of what Jesus wants them to experience.
For you see, he has loaded his banquet table with the best of spiritual meats, vegetables, and other delicacies. He invites them to eat, but they sit at the corner, sucking on their spiritual milk bottle, instead of diving into the banquet that will give them the spiritual energy they need to overcome all that life throws at them.
Maybe, there are some sitting here today that are spiritually immature Christians who have been sucking on that bottle of spiritual milk for way too many years. Maybe today is the day to get rid of the bottle and belly up to the table, but you are afraid to.
If you are afraid, you do not have to be. Maybe you just do not know where to start, so I would like to give you some suggestions on how to get started, suggestions that helped me almost 30 years ago to start on my walk with Jesus, which by the way lit such a fire in me, that I developed an unstoppable hunger for more and more of God’s soul food.
Remember the devil is not going to like it, so it might not be easy to start. The first thing you need to do is start with prayer. Not just a quick passing prayer, but a deep meaningful talk with God. Talk to him as you would a good friend, who knows, really knows what is best for you. You do not need a set pattern, just pour out what is on your heart. Ask him to work in your life, and then take some time and listen to him as he speaks to you through his Word and those you know who are more spiritually mature.
The second thing you do is to start attending one of our small group Bible studies or Sunday morning Bible studies. We have two small groups meeting on Monday, two on Wednesday, and one Saturday morning. Times and locations are listed in your service folder. Do not be afraid if you do not know your Bible or always understand what it is saying. That is why we call it a Bible study, for we are all learning about God and his will for us.
You see, studying his Word is the only way you can become spiritually mature, because as our first daily devotion this past week put it, God opens his hands to you in his Holy Scriptures. Unlike us, who are naturally grabbers, taking everything we can, God is a giver and what a giver, he is.
God first gave us a wonderful world to live in. It might not be that wonderful of a world right now, but when he created it and populated it with Adam and Eve and all of its animals it was a perfect world. Even after Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge he did not close his hands to them. He opened his hands as he clothed them and then gave them the promise of a Savior that would pay the price for the sin that they had committed.
God did not stop there though, for throughout the Old Testament we see that he continually opened his hands, providing for his chosen people, as he continues to do today as he daily provides us with all we need to sustain our lives and souls.
When Jesus came to live as one of us he opened his hands as he fed and healed. Oh, he could have healed without touching them, but he chose not to. He went to those who desperately needed his healing with open hands and touched them, the blind, the lame, the leper, and even the dead. He touched them just as he touches us today through those who he has put on this earth to heal our broken and wounded bodies, minds, and souls.
But one day he was taken to a hill called Golgotha, where those wonderful healing and forgiving open hands of Jesus were nailed to the cross for our sake. Even though those who nailed him to the cross that day thought they had permanently closed his hands, he showed them differently, for he rose from the dead and showed himself to his disciples, opening his hands so that they could see the nail prints.
What a loving God we have, who continues to take our lives in his loving open hands, who continues to forgive us time and time again, as we sin against his will. And because of that we are to learn from his open hands to open our hearts so that our hands will be open to do his will.
Giving, that is what it is all about, his giving to us everything we need for our body and soul, and our giving up of our pride, our selfish ambitions, our desire for control, our false gods, all those things we rely on, giving them all up to him, so that we can become the givers that God wants us to be. Amen
Frank Ketchum quote was taken from “I Believe, But I Still Have Questions.” by Jane Fryar. Published by Concordia Publishing House 1994
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 12:54 PM
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