THE GIFTS THAT JESUS GIVES! By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com Part#2
I. ARE WE CRYING AND DEPRESSED BECAUSE THINGS ARE NOT AS WE HOPED? Can we rejoice when everything seems to be going wrong? There is a time we must quit crying and by faith find JOY!
Neh. 8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
A. I love the story from Pastor Rex Johnson’s book WITH A PALM AND A WILLOW...
B. Page 98: We are people that dance before the Lord. Rex states that in the 1940’s the Nazi’s sent hundreds of Jews to the shower. It was in December and the weather was freezing. The Nazi’s made the Jews go outside while still wet from the showers and stand in the sub-zero degree cold. Scores of victims stood still and would freeze to death. The people were like frozen statues before they fell over in death.
C. Scores died that day. One by one falling over frozen. One young boy battled the cold, his bare feet froze solid to the ground. Horror was all around and this young boy was resigned to die in minutes. He remembered many things from the past. He thought of hopes of the future.
D. Then the lad recalled a lesson from his RABBI. The young boy in pre-death visions heard his RABBI’S LESSON.
E. He could hear the Rabbi’s voice saying... WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD. Over and over in his ears he heard the lesson: WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD. HIS FEET WERE FROZEN TO THE GROUND AND HE HEARD: WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD.
F. WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD. The young man willed himself to speak aloud from his blue lips: WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD.
G. He started saying, A HASID MUST SING. A HASID MUST DANCE. WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD. The Rabbi’s words shook the boy... He started to sing and dance before the Lord. As his feet began to dance, his feet were loosed from the ice. He tore off the soles of his feet dancing, the blood covered the ground.
H. Hundreds of people died around him, as he sang and said: WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD. This young man survived the Holocaust and lived to tell others.
I. This story was recorded in the HASIDIC TALES OF THE HOLOCAUST By Eliach Yaffa, Vintage Books, New York 1988 on pages 109-110.
J. Rex Johnson goes on to say: For when we face adversity, we do not have to dance in a pool of our blood. WE ARE PEOPLE WHO DANCE BEFORE THE LORD. We dance and rejoice because God gave His Son, and Jesus shed His blood for all our sin and we have the GIFT OF SALVATION.
NOW WE MAY REJOICE. MAY WE DANCE BEFORE THE LORD. WE MUST QUIT CRYING AND DANCE.
II. LET US START WITH A GIFT OLD PEOPLE WILL ENJOY MORE THAN YOUNG PEOPLE! HOME! YOUNG PEOPLE CAN’T WAIT TO LEAVE HOME! OLD PEOPLE DREAM OF HOME!
A. HOME: HOME MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
B. Webster says:
HOME:
A place of HARMONY
One’s place of residence. Relax, comfortable.
Domicile, house.
A social unit formed by a family living together.
A familiar setting.
A place of origin.
An establishment where people care for other people.
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
C. SOME SAY: YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME --- THAT IS A YOUNG PERSON TALKING!
D. Many years ago Lynn Knox, one of my church members, had been in Nashville in the
hospital many months. It is a drive, so twice a week I would drive to see my old
friend. We would sit for hours and talk. He became a very dear friend to me.
After four months in the hospital the doctors transferred him to a local rehab center.
Lynn had to learn to walk again. I went into his room one day, he had his eyes closed.
I thought Lynn was asleep. I gently coughed and Lynn opened his eyes.
E. I said, Lynn, I thought you were asleep.
Lynn said, NO PREACHER, I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT HOME.
He closed his eyes and said, The TV is over here. The couch is over there. My chair
is in the corner. He went on and told me all about his home. TEARS RAN DOWN HIS FACE, AS HE REMEMBERED HOME.
F. I AM TOLD YOUNG PEOPLE CAN’T WAIT TO LEAVE HOME.
OLD PEOPLE SIT AND DREAM OF HOME. WELL, IF THIS IS TRUE, I AM OLD. I DREAM OF HOME SO OFTEN.
I think so much of Dad, he is still pastoring a church at the age of 76.
I think of Mom, she has been gone 9 years, but the memories of home are so precious to me.
III. WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE GIFT OF HOME?
LET US SPEND SOME TIME THINKING ON THE GIFT OF OUR LONG HOME...
A. If you have ever studied World Literature of the college level --- you know ECCLESIATES 12 IS AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE.
B. Ecclesiastes’s 12th chapter records the journey of life.
vs. 3: In the day when the keepers of the house tremble ---
This speaks of the fingers and hands shaking.
The strong men bow --- The story of the shoulders being rounded and dragging.
--- look out of the windows be darkened --- This tells of cataracts and dimming vision.
--- the grinders cease --- speaks of the teeth falling out.
vs. 4: he shall rise up --- Tells of sleeplessness.
C.Then vs. 5 tells of worry and fear and little things becoming a burden.
Eccles. 12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
D. The desires fail --- our appetites and hunger is gone.
Then comes death ---
Eccles. 12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
E. When somebody that we love passes from mortal to immortality, we do not give
them --- THEY ARE TAKEN...
We would ask for one more Christmas, one more birthday, one more week together.
F. When you go to the grave yard the tombstone is so cold. The ground is so hard. The sounds are so silent.
G. During a very hard time, I drove 2 1/2 hours to my Mom’s grave. I sat on the bench there for a while.
Many years ago I placed the key to my Mom and Dad’s house under the corner of the tombstone. I took the key of the home and held it in my hand and I sat there and remembered home.
IV. CAN WE UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOME AND OUR LONG HOME?
Eccles. 12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go
about the streets:
A. My Dad is a pastor, we lived in 15 places in 5 states. One time my parents bought a
home in Sharpsville, Indiana and that was only for one year. We had lived our lives in church parsonages, open to the church.
B. But where ever home was --- was always special to me. We lived in one parsonage where snow would accumulate in our bedroom when the wind blew just right.
C. When we moved to Illinois, 5 kids and Mom and Dad were all in a 1965 Plymouth Station wagon pulling a 6 x 12 U-Haul Trailer with all our furniture and belongings packed to the top of that trailer. The aquarium and fish rode up front with us.
Wow, how did Dad do it?
D. We may not have had a lot, but we were very happy and we enjoyed life. The longest I lived in one area was 3 years and that was only once.
But home was where ever the ministry took us.
E. When I married in 1970 --- Mom and dad moved away and left us. There was no greater joy in life than my wife and I loading up and going to Mom and Dad’s. Home was always banana pudding, meatloaf, lots of
company, and the love of each other.
F. As I lay on Mom’s grave holding the key to HOME, I was flooded with joy. I HAD THE BEST MOM AND DAD IN THE WORLD.
Home was so precious.
Just holding the key to HOME was flooding my heart with precious memories.
Wow, God --- THANK YOU FOR HOME...
Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
V. Home is not a building, HOME IS WHERE YOU HANG YOUR HEART. HOME IS WHERE EACH LIVES FOR THE OTHER, AND ALL LIVE FOR THE LORD.
A. I recalled the family laughing together. I remembered the day the doctor called and told Dad the test revealed Mom had cancer real bad.
My Dad went in the bathroom. Mom went in the bedroom. I went in the kitchen and started cooking a big meal. My brother Tim grabbed the broom and mop and cleaned
their house. None of us could face the fact that Mom was terminal and her days were limited.
We were all silently crying, trying to hide our emotions from each other.
B. I was very wrong for burying my head in the kitchen.
If I had it all to do over, I would have called Dad, Tim, and me and went in the bedroom with Mom and we should have all hugged and cried together.
We were all trying to be tough-stuff.
C. Now when I go to Frankfort I visit on her grave, and THANK GOD FOR HOME.
VI. LET US NOW REMEMBER THE BEST GIFT OF ALL TIME. GOD GAVE HIS ONLY SON!
A. When somebody that we love passes from mortal to immortality, we do not give them --- THEY ARE TAKEN...
We would ask for one more Christmas, one more birthday, one more week together.
NO ONE HAD THE ABILIITY TO TAKE JESUS, GOD GAVE HIM!
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
B. YOU MUST RECEIVE GOD’S GIFT.
I hold up a dollar bill, I say, WHO EVER WANTS THIS CAN HAVE IT, IF YOU COME AND GET IT. Usually people will sit around, until one runs up and gets it.
I then ask why did that person get the dollar and no body else did?
It is a matter of sitting or choosing to move and accept the gift.
C. Will you accept God’s gift, or will you wait for a MORE CONVENTIENT TIME?
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Help me? Pass it on?
