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Thesis:
Through Jesus, we can find our way out of bondage when we
put our belief into action.
1. We
are in bondage.
2. Doubt
immobilizes us.
3. God
does not demand perfect faith.
4. We
must rely completely on God's strength.
My sermon
title ("Of Human Bondage and Deliverance") is rather
tongue in cheek. It sounds rather lofty and long (not that
my sermons are lofty, just long ... sometimes). It doesn't
sound like the title for a story of smelly crowds and people
arguing theologies in the midst of Jesus, a fearful father
and a boy possessed with epilepsy. I picked it because I don't
want to lose sight of the fact that the Son of God came down
from heaven to the smelly, ugly crowd and healed people, freeing
them from all manner of sickness and disease. People understand
what it is to be in bondage. What they need to understand
is that we have a deliverer. Through Jesus, we can find our
way out of bondage when we put our belief into action. You
and I need to claim Jesus' deliverance for ourselves, and
then we need to share this good news with the world.
What you
think about Christ affects how you reach out to others. What
you think Christ can do affects what you do. Let me repeat
that. John Wesley, who founded Methodism, lived in the 1700s.
He was an Anglican minister who was concerned about the church
because it was spiritually dead. He didn't see any Christian
impact on how people were living then. He described this version
of the Christian life as "practical atheism." We
go to church on Sundays, but then we tuck Jesus away for the
next six days. We don't allow our faith to intersect our lives
the rest of the week. Basically, we live as atheists at home,
at work, with our friends, or at school. I think he could
have been talking about us.
Why do
we live as practical atheists? What are we afraid of? Why
do we doubt? Why do we hide our Bibles? Why do our Christian
lives seem so apathetic? What do we think about Christ,
that we don't put our beliefs into action? Putting your belief
into action is faith. Faith is belief in action. You
and I might believe something, but until we put that belief
into action, we don't have faith. Have your beliefs been put
into action lately?
About
100 years ago there was a tightrope walker named Blondin who
set up a tightrope across Niagara Falls. A crowd gathered
to see him cross the falls and back on the wire. Blondin turned
to the crowd and asked: "How many of you think I can
do this pushing a wheelbarrow across the falls?" The
crowd cheered and chanted for him to do it, which he did.
By now the crowd was huge and ecstatic. He faced them again
and asked how many of them thought he could cross the falls
pushing 200 pounds of brick in the wheelbarrow. The crowd
was chanting and cheering for him: "You can do it! You
can do it!" Then he asked for volunteers. Immediately
the crowd shrunk back. The crowd had belief in the man, but
no faith. They couldn't put that belief into action.
Just like
the Niagara crowd, our doubts immobilize us.
Until we can put our beliefs into action, we are in bondage.
Until we can stop living as practical atheists, we will remain
in bondage. You know what has you in bondage. Whether or not
you are ready, introduce that thing to Jesus Christ and let
him go to work on it, whether it's your doubts, your self-image,
your fear of failure, or some other addiction. Let Jesus have
it. He already knows all about it anyway.
That's
what the father of the epileptic boy did. He introduced his
son's problem to Jesus. Actually, he introduced it to the
disciples. Jesus and his three closest friends had been up
on the Mount of Transfiguration and were coming down when
they met the crowd. Ironic that Jesus - who on the Mount of
Transfiguration was bathed in radiant white, who spoke with
Elijah and Moses, who God proclaimed, "This is my beloved
Son with whom I am well-pleased" - would choose to come
down off that mountain. He went from the mountaintop full
of glory to the valley full of despair with the father and
his boy. The disciples couldn't cast this evil spirit out
from the boy. When the child was brought to Jesus, the evil
spirit "immediately threw the boy into a convulsion."
The father
begged, "If you can do anything, take pity on us and
help us." Jesus responded, "If you can?"
Jesus had been teaching and healing literally for years in
Galilee. Could there be any doubt? The answer is, of course
there was doubt! People witnessed what Jesus did, but still
wouldn't commit themselves fully to him. I love the man's
answer, that "everything is possible for him who believes,"
but even more I like his honesty. "I do believe. Help
my unbelief." There was faith, but it was mixed with
an unbelief that needed to be overcome. Then Jesus healed
the boy.
How good
to know that God does not demand perfect faith in people!
Jesus accepts even imperfect faith and generously works in
our lives. As we continue to grow in our relationships with
him, he does indeed "help our unbelief," gradually
replacing it with a more perfect trust in him. Jesus says
all we need to begin is the faith of a mustard seed, just
enough to take that first step.
The final
lesson comes in Jesus speaking with the disciples at the end
of the healing. The disciples who had been unable to help
were troubled by their powerlessness. Afterward they asked
Jesus: "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
Jesus
answered: "This kind can come out only by prayer."
For the
challenges in our lives as Jesus' followers, we must
rely, not on our own strength, but on God's. Our prayers express
that dependence on God like nothing else. When we can do nothing,
we pray. We need to pray at all times, because it's only through
God and his strength that we can do anything.
Tonight
maybe you've never thought of your struggles as you being
in bondage. Maybe you need to invite Jesus to join you there,
to be your deliverer. Maybe you've let your doubts immobilize
you. Let your prayer be to put your beliefs into action right
now. Don't wait until you think your faith is big enough.
Begin today. Pray for God's strength and God's resources to
be brought to bear in your life. And pray for God to show
you who else needs to know there is a Savior, a Deliverer.
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