Loyal, OK

 
Pastor Leon Seaton

To Be Like Jesus--Always Available

Before you question my sanity in choosing this title, please let me explain that we are to be like Jesus was while here on earth – limited by His physical body so that He could only be one place at a time.

Jesus was perfectly human – and also a perfect human. He enjoyed life to the full. He laughed… and He cried. He got tired, He got frustrated, and He got angry. Just like you and I do.

And He often did not have enough time to do everything… yet He knew how to set priorities.

One of the greatest challenges we face is learning how to help people without taking away their dignity or making them dependent on us. As we study the life of Christ we can better understand how it could help everyone without being stressed. He could do that because He was committed to pleasing the Father, not to pleasing people.

Several years ago my job was teaching kidney failure patients to do Home Dialysis. To be successful in Home Dialysis, the patient has to be a very responsible and highly-motivated person. When the wrong patient was put on this kind of dialysis it was a real mess.

One such patient had trained at a clinic in Lawton, OK, about 90 miles from our clinic. Because she was not cooperative, the staff there told her that they would not treat her any longer. So… she wound up in our clinic. Being the on-call nurse, I spent a lot of time with this patient in the emergency room as well as the clinic.

Finally I asked her if Carol (the Lawton nurse) had not taught her better. “Yes, she did, but I don’t want to do all of that stuff!”

Now I knew! After consulting with the physician, we transferred her to Hemodialysis. This type of dialysis is done in a clinic 3 days a week. Initially she was angry at me, but after 6 weeks she came and thanked me. She said, “You gave my life back to me!”

My role was not to rescue her – it was to guide her to a better decision.

God does things like that – He gives us all the options in the world, but if we keep making wrong decisions He will guide us down the best path – although we are not always happy about it at the time. God is more interested in us spending eternity with Him than He is with us being totally happy in this life.

How do we become like Jesus? First we have to make a decision to love everybody! Not just the folks like us, but everybody, enemies included. After all, Jesus did! (And does)

Secondly, we learn to accept people just like they are. Once they know that we accept them, they are more open to our suggestions on better ways to do things. For instance, I know that my wife loves me and accepts me – therefore I am willing to do things differently to please her. Having been your pastor for 13 years I know that you love and accept me, and I have made many changes because of that love.

But, CAN WE ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE?

Yes. Jesus could not be everywhere, yet when He sent the 70 out to evangelize, they felt His loving presence and confidence because He had trained them well.

Our confidence that comes from knowing that someone loves us is very powerful. In 1957, as a new recruit in the US Air Force – 750 miles away from home and a very lonely young man – I was comforted by my parents' love and the prayers of our home church.

Nine years later I was a lonely 2^nd Lt, US Army, in Tokyo, Japan. But again I was strengthened by the love of family and friends...now my circle was larger. My wife, my daughter, my home church, and the members of this church were praying for me.

Love knows no distance – I was half a world away, one day ahead of Oklahoma because of the time zone – and was strengthened by your love!

Listen to me very carefully. Children that have never heard their mom and dad tell them how much they love and trust them eventually become senior citizens that are still looking for someone to totally accept them! May God help us minister HIS love to them!

Now let’s look at the way Jesus operated in this love by long distance. John 11 tells the story of the death and resurrection of Lazarus.

Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were close personal friends of Jesus. Lazarus was very sick, so the girls sent Jesus a message. “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

Jesus loved them, yet He tarried two more days before leaving to help them! This seems a little strange. Like them, however, we too have had prayers that were not answered. Jesus had two reasons for this course of action. First, some of the Jewish leaders wanted Him dead.

The real reason, however, was the second reason. He wanted the power of God shown in such a way that no one could doubt it.

When Jesus told the disciples it was time to return to Jerusalem they hesitated. “But Rabbi, a short while ago the Jews tried to stone You, and yet You are going back there?”

Verses 9 and 10 are a little hard to understand. However, it was an expression that meant simply this. “When we are doing what God wants us to do, He will protect us. We need not fear what man can do to us.”

As they left Thomas, famous for his doubt, did show courage. He said, “Let us go also, that we may die with Him.”

When they arrived, Jesus was first met by Martha. “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give You whatever you ask.”

If you have trouble understanding part of the Bible, you understand how Martha felt. Jesus often did not give direct answers. His answers can often be taken several ways. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha probably thought, “Well, yes, but what does that have to do with the here and now?”

She then went to get Mary. When Mary came to Jesus she repeated what Martha had said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping – and those in the crowd weeping as well, He too wept. Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.”

Then Jesus and the crowd went to the tomb and Jesus asked them to roll the stone away. Oops! Now we have gone from being philosophical to actually doing something! One can feel the tension mounting, the blood pressures going up!

Martha said, “But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” (They did not embalm like we do today.)

Jesus responded, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

He then prayed… for the benefit of the crowd… and then commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb. And out he came! Some have wondered how a man all bound up in grave clothes could walk out. The answer is simple… “What difference does it make?” Surely God could handle that little detail too!

How then can we be like Jesus, and always be available?

1. There is no distance in love, as we have discussed.

2. There is no distance in the power of prayer. People in the United States have prayed for missionaries in Africa and God has answered those prayers with great miracles.

3. When I talked to my wife about being always available she held up her cell phone and said, “Call me up and I’ll come calling on you.”

4. Your giving to different ministries extends your influence around the world.

5. Just listening to people is invaluable. Most of us can solve our own problems if someone will listen long enough. Someone has observed that often when we pray God does not say a word – He remains mute. But as we talk things over with Him, the light of wisdom slowly helps us understand.

6. Submit to the Holy Spirit. According to Philippians 2:6-11 Jesus set aside His godly power and became a man – and then submitted entirely to the Holy Spirit. You and I have that same Spirit available to us today.

7. Submit to God. Totally submit to His will. Don’t ask, “Well, what’s in this for me?” Just do what God asks and leave the rewarding to Him!

January 27, 2008