A Simple Path, I Corinthians 16:14
Introduction
“We have all been created for greater things – to love and to be loved. Love is love, to love a person without any conditions, without any expectations. Works of love are works of peace and purity. Works of love are always a means of becoming closer to God, so the more we help each other, the more we really love God better by loving each other.
Jesus very clearly said, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ Love in action is what gives us grace. We pray and, if we are able to love with a whole heart, then we will see the need.
Those who are unwanted, unloved, and uncared for become just a throwaway of society – that’s why we must really make everybody feel wanted. There is something else to remember – that this kind of love begins at home.
We cannot give to the outside what we do not have on the inside. This is very important. If I can’t see God’s love in my brother and sister then how can I see that love in somebody else? How can I give it to somebody else? Everybody has got some good. Some hide it, some neglect it, but it is there.”
These words were written by a Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work in that region. For over forty years, she ministered to the needs of the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in Calcutta, India.
Scripture
1 Corinthians 16:14 says, “Let all that you do be done in love.” (ESV)
Transition
Of late, I have been investing time into the study of the lives of great men and woman of faith. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing with you many of the things I’ve learned from the lives of these servants of God. This morning we will be examining the life of a great woman of faith, Mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa was a simple woman with a simple faith who lived her life walking along a simple path of loving God completely and loving people unconditionally.
Mother Teresa is a worldwide household name. Nearly everyone has some kind of opinion about her.
Some view her as a living saint, while others see her as an extraordinary missionary.
When we take a look beyond the public view of Mother Teresa we find that her faith and her clarity of purpose give us powerful lessons in the ways of loving, serving, and respecting our fellow human beings.
When we examine the principals that live by, we find that she walked a simple path which can be followed by anyone in any place. This morning I’ll share with you the five principals which guided her life.
Principal 1: The Fruit of Silence is Prayer.
“I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence – we need to listen to God because it’s not hat we say but what He says to us and through us that matters.”
What do our prayer lives say about us? What do we pray for? What do we pray about? I’m reminded of the pious old gentleman of an earlier generation who used to get up regularly at prayer meeting in his church to pray: “Use me, O Lord, use me – preferably in some advisory capacity!”
In Matthew 6:5-7 Jesus said, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (openly)” (ESV)
The kind of prayer that Mother Teresa is talking about is the kind of “prayer which enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God himself.”
God is concerned about our needs, and we should pray for those things. But how much more should we listen for the voice of God directing us along the path of our lives? How much more do we need to be empowered by God through prayer?
If you are searching for God and don’t know where to begin, learn to pray every day. You can pray anywhere, wherever you are. You can pray as you drive to work. You can pray while you are at work.
God’s ear is largest enough to hear even a silent whisper of prayer and His voice is loud enough to speak to you wherever you are.
Principal 2: The Fruit of Prayer is Faith.
Mother Teresa said, “I follow Christ, Jesus is my God, Jesus is my spouse, Jesus is my life, Jesus is my only love, Jesus is my All in All, Jesus is my everything. Because of this I am never afraid. I am doing my work with Jesus, I’m doing it for Jesus, I’m doing it to Jesus, and therefore the results are His, not mine. If you need a guide, you only have to look to Jesus. You have to surrender to Him and rely on Him completely. When you do this, all doubt is dispelled and you are filled with conviction. Jesus said, unless you become (as) a child you cannot come to me.”
As we fill our lives with prayer, our hearts will be filled with faith and a heart full of faith has no room for fear. The Scriptures teach us that perfect love casts out fear. Faith is the prominent sign of the of God’s love in us.
When faith steers our course, our destination is always love.
Principal 3: The Fruit of Faith is Love.
Prayer is a lot like an athlete stretching before a run. It is a lot like a mother dressing her child before going outside to play in the backyard.
The athlete doesn’t stretch just for the sake of stretching and neither does the mother take the time to dress her child in warm clothes and mittens in winter, purely for the sake of dressing the child.
In the same way, prayer fills our heart with faith and faith fills our hearts with love. And love only knows one way to express is itself – in action.
Principal 4: The Fruit of Love is Service.
God isn’t calling us to act in advisory capacities – like the pious old gentlemen I mentioned earlier – we learn from the life of Mother Teresa that God is calling us to reach out our hands in love and in the process, get our hands dirty.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta once was asked, “How do you measure the success of your work?” She looked puzzled for a moment and then replied, “I don’t remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts.”
We don’t have to move to Calcutta to be faithful in our service to God. We don’t have to open soup kitchens and orphanages to be used of God. We only must be faithful to the people in our lives that God gives us to love.
We merely have to be obedient to serve the mission of the Kingdom of God – loving the people in our lives… completely and wholeheartedly.
It’s amazing what happens in the heart of another person when you stop demanding things from them and start serving them. We learn from Mother Teresa life that the true power of change comes as we serve others in love.
This principal of service is reiterated in the life of Christ in Matthew 20:28 where Jesus, speaking of Himself says, “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (ESV)
Is there someone in your life that you can serve? Perhaps there is a family member or a friend who has hurt you or you have hurt. Perhaps you can go to them, and rather than place demands on them, bring healing through serving them.
Let us, as individuals, look for ways to serve others in our lives. Let us, as a church, look for ways that we can serve our community.
Miracles in this life don’t happen in this life by accident, they happen when we – like Mother Teresa – allow our hearts to be filled with love and our actions filled with faithful service.
Principal 5: The Fruit of Service is Peace.
Mother Teresa’s life and ministry was characterized by recognizing the intrinsic value and worth found in all people.
Love characterized her life and ministry. Service defined her faith.
Mother Teresa said that the biggest disease today is not leprosy, nor tuberculosis, not Aids, nor cancer. Rather, the biggest disease in the world today is the “feeling of being unwanted, uncared for, and deserted by everyone.”
We all long for peace in our lives, in our families, in our community, and even in our world. Likely, none of us is content with the degree to which we enjoy peace and love in our own lives, and certainly we aren’t content with the lack of peace we see in the world around us.
Peace comes through service, which comes from love, which grows out of faith, which comes from a life spent listening to God through prayer.
Conclusion
Why is it that we spend so much time and energy demanding things of people? We place demands of people’s time, their love, their very being.
Imagine the impact it would have on us and on all of those around us if we stopped demanding and started serving. Imagine what your life would like if instead of demanding those around you to change their behavior and attitudes… you decided to change yourself.
When we serve others we plant seeds of love in their hearts. When we serve others the fruit of love grows in our hearts.
Today, I encourage you to stop waiting for the light of peace to appear at the end of the tunnel of your life. Get up, walk to the end of the tunnel and light it.
Mother Teresa spent her life living out her faith, serving others – may it be said of us that we did the same.
Amen.
