Title: YOU WANT A HOPING HEART
Text: Luke 22:14-18
Before my wife and I were ever married we had discussed wanting four children. After having our first two, we entered negotiations, rethought our journey in life and wondered if we were called to have any more. That lasted four years when enough time had elapsed for us to forget all the reasons why we stopped--and #3 came along. And what a blessing!
After #3 though, another subject came to the table—what to do when we didn’t want any more children in the family? In the midst of deliberations, it was discovered that only ONE of us needed to visit the doctor for there to be a remedy to this situation.
What I didn’t know was that Melissa and her doctor had formed a coalition and Melissa gave me all of the reasons why it was better if I was the one who would go-- complete with pamphlets!--and have a simple procedure done--complete with sound effects, *snip-snip*. She made a pretty good case and so an appointment was scheduled. But God had another plan.
The week of the appointment, I had recurring low feelings. With each approaching day it got worse. When I have feelings like that I had a wise pastor’s wife who helped train me to spend extra time with the Lord to figure out why it is happening. All that day I just felt like crying at the thought of going to that appointment. I didn’t exactly know whe but I finally came to the conclusion God didn’t want me to go. I shared my heart with Melissa and we agreed that God must have another plan. Maybe a fourth child was for us after all!
If you know anything about the Kesslers, you will know that everyone’s birthday is in July. Everyone’s but mine which is celebrated with Jesus in December! We decided we didn’t want another child in July and in due time we discovered that a baby was on its way to our home--not in July--but in the month of dear ole dad! December was going to bring an extra blessing to our home. But God had another plan.
After three months Melissa had a miscarriage. I can still remember the night we told the kids at family time and our darling 7 year old little daughter just cried and cried. But we assured them that God must have another plan. It would take some time to heal our hearts to hope again. And that came with a couple of bumps along the way.
A girl in our youth group had a pregnant sister in the hospital and so I went to visit her. She had carried the baby full-term. On Monday’s check up things were fine. It was now Friday and things had changed. I went in to pray with them and offer what I could. Before the next Monday, the baby would be born dead. I heard the news from our church secretary and a flood of emotion took me back to my own pain. She then told me they wanted me to do the funeral. My first response was, in tears, “I don’t know if I can.” But God had another plan.
I went to meet with the couple, counseled with them, prayed with them, listened to their story and we put together a service that honored the life—however short it was—of that dear baby. Sin is the reason and answer for death in our world. The Bible tells me so. It is SIN that brings death; it is GOD who brings HOPE in the midst of death. And God brings the VERY BEST kind of hope --doesn’t HE?
As I said, God had another plan. I finally figured out how babies were made so I slept on the couch the whole month of October with the full intent of baby not being born in July. When Melissa came home from the doctor’s office, she reported August 3rd was the intended due date BUT she kept telling me the baby would be born in July—and telling everyone else too!
Melissa had several conversations with her doctor that could be classified as rather “mutinous”–talk of inducing because the doctor’s WIFE had made vacation plans the week the baby was due and it would be BENEFICIAL to have the baby born early meaning in July. Well the baby did come in July, but not the way Melissa had thought.
Early in July Melissa went in for a checkup and then the following week and the doctor had some suspicions that baby wasn’t growing. When she went in on July 20th I was called from Marion General Hospital telling me they were prepping her for a C-section. There was nothing I could do--my hands were tied. BABY WAS COMING IN JULY!
You see, there was a reason I felt that sadness over a year prior when my appointment came when the remedial FIX was to happen. But God had another plan.
There was a reason for us to live through a miscarriage—God had another plan.
There was a reason child #4 was born in July—God had another plan.
And although I could not see God’s face in all of those things, I learned to trust His hand.
My heart learned to HOPE STRONGLY in God. And I learned God’s plans are the best for us IF WE WILL LEAVE OUR HOPE IN HIM!
Three weeks ago we walked with the woman who anointed Jesus BEFORE his death and burial.
Two weeks ago we walked up to Jesus with Judas and felt the act of betrayal. Last week we hung suspended with the thieves on the cross with the need to make the choice about the one who hung in the middle.
Today we see Jesus fulfilling HOPE in the RESURRECTION—death could not hold Jesus, the tomb could not contain him, nothing could hold him down—when the power of God comes upon you NEW LIFE comes into being!
And in “I TOLD YOU SO” fashion, Jesus appeared to his disciples right in their midst without bothering to knock at the barred windows or locked doors—where just days and hours before Jesus was reclining with his disciples maybe in that very room where they had eaten that Last Supper? It was at THAT supper Jesus spoke the words for today’s communion.
Jesus had a gift I do not have—he could see, by the help of the Holy Spirit, what the future would bring. Jesus was sitting with his friends and he tells them a secret—I WILL NOT EAT THIS MEAL WITH YOU AGAIN UNTIL A MORE FULFILLING TIME.
God had another plan at the cross!
It was prevenient grace that drew the woman to anoint Christ’s feet for his burial! It was justifying grace that made Peter’s and yours and my betrayal forgivable! It was saving grace that met the thief on the cross reaching him just in time.
I let my children watch some of Mel’ Gibson’s THE PASSION OF CHRIST this week. We watched Jesus in the garden, the betrayal of Jesus on THUR night…on Friday we skipped much of the part of the beating and his getting up Calvary. We listened to him speak from the cross and as I looked down my 8 yr old girl was crying.
When we got to the end of the video we stopped it, because that’s what you do… and the TV came back on…a show was on where people were giving testimonies about the very same movie we had just been watching. It was rather exciting to hear how lives were changed by the message and hope in Jesus Christ!
You see if we were to see all that Jesus went through on Calvary we would have said STOP! DON’T! NO MORE GOD! But because of what we have NOW and the HOPE that is given BECAUSE of what Christ went through we are so THANKFUL! And the same is true for you—how many of you have ever said, “I never want to go through what I had to go through but I am glad I went through it”?
After each of these phrases, I want you to say the words ‘God has another plan.’ Ready…
But Jesus suffered! God has another plan.
But Jesus died! God has another plan.
But Jesus was buried! God has another plan.
But I’m suffering! God has another plan.
But my marriage is dying! God has another plan.
My relationships are buried! God has another plan.
So many times we let circumstances ROB US of the HOPE we truly have in our GOD! We leave Jesus in the garden or hanging on the cross or buried in the tomb! Where we have left our hopes!
But you need a HOPING HEART! You want to have a HOPING heart! You will have a hoping heart, because the TOMB IS EMPTY! A MORE FULFILLING TIME HAS COME!
No longer do we have to look back to the Exodus from Egypt and Moses as THE story of Redemption, but now in CHRIST, THE more fulfilling time has come! We don’t have to remember the blood over the doorposts, but we remember the blood of Jesus Christ! The Passover Meal is NOW a Supper to remember the LORD! We have redemption through the blood, death and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST!
THE TOMB IS EMPTY …AND OUR HOPE IS FULL!
Once upon a time there was a young boy named Philip. Philip was born with Downs Syndrome. He was a pleasant and happy as most Downs children are--but he grew increasingly aware of the difference between himself and other children. Philip went to Sunday School at a Methodist church. His teacher, taught nine 3rd grade eight-year-old boys and girls…and Philip.
You know how eight-year-olds can be—so with his differences Philip wasn’t ready to be accepted. The teacher tried to help that group of 8 year olds with some creative ways. They did many things together as a group—they learned, and laughed, and played together; and really cared about one another. But Philip never really became a part of the group. Philip did not choose to be different. He just was.
The SS teacher had a marvelous idea for his class the Sunday after Easter last year. You know the eggs pantyhose come in—the teacher gave each of his 8 year old students one egg—and to go outside on that beautiful spring day, and find a symbol for new life, put it into the egg, and bring it back to the classroom where they would then open and share.
It was glorious, confusing and wild watching those 8 year olds run all around the church grounds, gathering their symbols, and returned to the classroom. They put all the eggs on a table, and with the class surrounding him, the teacher opened each one.
The first one had a flower—“ooh…aah…”. In the 2nd there was a little butterfly. "Beautiful," all the girls said (8 yr old boys don’t say "beautiful” you know). He opened another, and there was a rock. Some of the 3rd graders laughed, "That's crazy! How's a rock supposed to be like new life?" A smart little boy spoke up: "That's mine. And I knew all of you would get flowers and buds and leaves and butterflies and stuff like that. So I got a rock because I wanted to be different. And for me, that's new life." They all giggled.
“Well, that’s very profound,” the SS teacher said and opened the next egg. But there was nothing in it. The children said, "That's not fair--that's stupid!--somebody didn't do it right."
The teacher felt a tug on his shirt, and when he looked down, Philip was standing beside him--"It's mine, it's mine."
"You don't ever do things right, Philip,” the children said. “There's nothing there!"
"I did so do it," Philip said. "I did do it. It's empty. The tomb… it’s empty!"
There was a very full silence amongst the 3rd graders that day. And from that time on, it was different--Philip suddenly became a part of the group in that 8-year-old SS class. They took him in and he was set free from the tomb of his differentness.
THE TOMB IS EMPTY! HE IS NOT HERE!—the angel said! And no matter how you feel today, you can be set free from your TOMB of HOPELESSNESS! Whatever the situation is, there is HOPE for you because the TOMB is EMPTY!
Because the TOMB is empty, YOU have HOPE for your parents and your kids and grandkids; you have HOPE in your marriage, you have HOPE for your future; you have HOPE for more than JUST this life! And we can have HOPE as a church family too!
The story goes on to say that Philip died that summer. His family had known since the time he was born that he wouldn't live out a full life span. Philip died.
At the funeral, nine eight-year-old children marched up to the altar—they didn’t carry flowers, but along with their Sunday school teacher, they each laid on the altar an empty plastic egg.
Do you NEED a HOPING HEART today? We are going to celebrate that the TOMB is empty today and you are invited to take communion with us.
You don’t have to be a member here to receive communion elements. But if you are a member of God’s kingdom or truly desire to be—these elements of bread and the cup can hold for you today the HOPE you have been searching for. The greatest HOPE one can have is in their Savior Jesus Christ.
Easter doesn’t happen on the first Sunday of the month too often—about once every four years--It won’t be on a first Sunday again for five years and then 23 times in the next century.
When you come to the receive communion today, take a piece of bread from me, kneel if you are able to at the altar and take the cup and drink when you are ready. But let the bread and the cup be to you the HOPE of Christ within you where you have had little to no HOPE. Ask God to heal you in your heart in areas where HOPE in Him has faded.
Maybe pray something like this,
“God, free me to hope in you again. Forgive me for not holding on to the HOPE I have been given in you!
“I don’t know how you are going to do it, but I don’t care how—I NEED YOU!
“I receive your grace God, with this bread and cup—I take into myself the HOPE you have given to me—I remember the Christ…and the TOMB IS EMPTY! Thank you God!”
Don’t give up hope! God has another plan.
Are you ready to HOPE again? Sure you are.
