Called To Be His Heart For The World Series

Called to be His Heart for the World

I have a confession to make. The other night I snapped. My wife and I get a dozen or so “Sales calls” a day. I was watching an NBA playoff game and the phone rang…and it was a sales call, so I grabbed my referee’s whistle, leaned into the mouthpiece and let it rip! Then I hung up!

Have you ever received a call you didn’t want?

I also frequently receive those chain letters, and chain e-mails that always call on me to do something to keep the chain alive.

Illus. One church had some suggestions for church members unhappy with their pastor: "Simply send a copy of this letter to six other churches who are tired of their ministers. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list. Add your name to the bottom of the list. In one week you will receive 16,436 ministers, and one of them should make you happy. Have faith in this letter. One man broke the chain and got his old minister back."

I want for us to take a few minutes this morning and wrap up this series called, “Beyond the Tomb”. If you remember we started this the week after Easter.

The first week we talked about how we have been called to Be God’s church. Loving God and each other.

The second week I talked about how we have been called to be His living Word.

Weeks three and four we looked at how we are called to be His living sacrifice. People of the cross! Living examples of the meaning of the cross!

Today we are going to wrap up this series by seeing that we have been called to be His heart for the world!

When someone is passionate about someone or something we say their heart is really in it. What was Jesus’ heart really into?

If you were to pick up a Bible and begin to turn the pages of the New Testament you would quickly read about Jesus interacting with people who were hurting,and needy and desperate.

Throughout its pages Jesus is described as a man who cared deeply for others. Matthew 4 says:

“Jesus healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all.”

Jesus cared to the point of His own exhaustion! When crowds came to Him He gave Himself to them.

Matthew 8 gives an account when Jesus is coming down off the mountain, followed by His disciples

“Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in His ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus saying, ‘Master, if you want to you can heal my body.’ Jesus reached out and touched him saying, I want to. Be clean.’

There is only one thing that would make a clean man reach out and touch a leper…He cared! He really cared!

Illus. Man who became a leper. “We lepers”

There was another familiar story when Jesus was followed by a crowd for 3 days, with no food. Looking around at all of the hungry people Jesus said,

“I hurt for these people. For 3 days now they have been with me. Now they have nothing to eat.”

This wasn’t life or death. Not blindness or leprosy, but hunger. A small boy came to Jesus and brought 5 loaves and 2 fish. (Happy Meal). And Jesus did a miracle that day for all those people. The Bible says, “They all ate and were satisfied.”

Jesus got involved in the lives of others because he cared. Because he cared He had to get involved. Because He knew that he possessed what they lacked. He had what they needed.

This is really evident in the book of Exodus chapter 3. Moses is out tending sheep and he sees a bush off in the distance. The bush is burning but it isn’t being consumed by the fire. Sop he goes over and checks it out…

When He gets there God speaks to him. He tells him to take off his sandals, because the ground he is walking on is holy! Cool!

Then God says, (Slide)

“I have seen the misery of my people, I have heard them crying, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them.”

God is a God who cares! He notices. When we care we notice. That’s why our wives get upset with us when we are in the room, but we are not really with our wives. May be a million miles away, oblivious to what they6 are saying. Not picking up on any of the clues…