THE PRICE IS RIGHT
JAMES 1:19-27
#thepriceisright
INTRODUCTION
I should tell you that up front, the sermon that I will share with you this morning is NOT a sermon that I have written. I write all my own sermons each week, but this one is not mine. This one was written for Cold Spring and South Highland Methodist Church in Cold Spring, New York which the United Methodist Church currently says has attendance of 10 (umc.org/en/find-a-church/church?id= 001Um00000PFK4MIAX). It was originally preached at that church on October 18, 1959 and then five more times in 1961, 1963, 1964, and 1965 at various churches and a nursing home.
I did not write this sermon.
My grandfather did. My grandfather, Kermit F. Borst, was a lay minister in the United Methodist Church in New York and in Colorado. I looked up what that means.
CONTENT… umcdiscipleship.org/resources/certified-lay-minister
Certified Lay Minister: Laity have long been a part of ministry in Methodism. Lay preachers, exhorters, and class leaders have served the church since its earliest days. The certified lay minister is "called and equipped to conduct public worship, care for the congregation, assist in program leadership, develop new and existing faith communities, preach the word, lead small groups, or establish community outreach ministries as part of a ministry team with the supervision and support of a clergyperson.”
I have a small binder of his handwritten and type-writer produced sermons. This is one that I found that I would like to share with you. I most likely will do more reading this morning than normal, but I ask you to listen to this sermon which is about 66 years old. I found some parts of tit that moved my heart and I pray it does the same for you.
[I have edited it in some minor ways]
READ JAMES 1:19-27 (ESV)
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
As I begin my sermon this morning, I am going to ask you to keep a question in the front of your mind. When I have finished, the sermon, see if you are completely happy with your thoughts on the matter. The question is: “Does Christ ask too much of me?”
I wonder how many people today, who practice Christianity, whatever denomination, practice a Sunday religion. I have rather imagined if the facts were known, you and I would find that a goodly number of people who profess to be Christians, are in fact, what I would choose to call hot and cold Christians. By that, I mean they are all excited about Christianity and Christ when He fills a particular need for them, but when everything is running smoothly, they forget about Christianity and Christ. It is rather obvious to me, from the deplorable condition of the world today, that too many people are Sunday worshippers and not enough are daily worshippers. The Sunday worshippers either don’t expect anything at all from their meeting with Jesus, or expect very little, and get just that.
We have this group of people who feel pious on Sunday, and then for the next six days forget what it is to be honorable and just with their neighbors. They do not want… nor expect to get… enough from their religion to carry them from Sunday to Sunday to Sunday infinitum. It strikes me, that not enough people want to pay a little higher price for a better grade product where religion is concerned, but they want nothing but the best in a car, a house, or clothes. I am indeed saddened when I think of this calamitous condition. And when I stop and consider that God asks us for so little, such a small price for so immeasurable a gift of eternal life, I am disheartened even more.
God Almighty paid the supreme sacrifice in the death of His Son Jesus Christ upon the cross. He asks us to pay the small price of faith in Him. He asks us to pay a small price and yet many of us find that this is an impossible price. Think of the price the early Christians paid for their faith. Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned. Stephen was stoned to death. Peter and John were hauled before the courts as common criminals.
In contrast to this, Jesus Christ today asks people only that they believe in Him and follow the Ten Commandments. He tells us we should not steal. He tells us we should not covet our neighbors’ goods or his wife. He tells us we should not tell falsehoods. He tells us to love our neighbor. Don’t you agree that this is a pretty small price to pay for eternal life with God the Father?
* Would we, all of us here this morning, have the courage to pay the supreme cost of our faith?
* Could you stand before a firing squad in Berlin and say, “This is the price for my God.”
* Would you face being burned alive in Dachau saying, “This is the price I pay for Jesus.”
Thank the God of Heaven on bended knee that He is not asking us for such a steep price; for many brave hearts have faltered at less. Many believers died this way. By the same token, many brave hearts had to pay this price and did so happy that Jesus Christ called them so they could answer. Be happy that Jesus is only asking us to love our neighbor, refrain from coveting, refrain from stealing, and refrain from murder. Be happy… rejoice… and pay the price gladly!
I have had people say to me, “But how do you really know there is a God? Aren’t you paying for a pig in a poke?” [Full disclosure, I have no idea what this means!]. To anyone who doubts in God because they have never seen Him, I show this Bible. This is the biography of our Lord and our Savior. You believe in history books even to the point of letting your children be educated by their content. Believe in this book! This is a history book! This is more than a history book!
You have never seen Abraham Lincoln. You have never seen George Washington or Lee or Grant or Custer. Yet you believe they existed. You know they existed only because the history books tell you they existed. The history book tells you what they did, where they did it, how they did it. You believe. Believe this Book for it tells us about a Man Named Jesus of Nazareth Who really lived on earth. It tells you what He did, when He did it, and how He did it. Others of His followers who lived during His era tell you of His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into Heaven. Yes friends, believe on this Book and Know that He is God! Know that you pay not for a “pig in a poke.” [Again, I don’t know why anyone would poke a pig].
For you and I, to sell our faith short, is the most grievous error we can ever make. We can make a mistake in business and lose our business. It is possible to recoup this loss. We can make a mistake in judgment and change it later to our own advantage. We can make all manner of mistakes, but we cannot make the mistake of turning our backs on our faith, not even for a single day! Nor should we make the mistake of buying our religion too cheaply and getting an inferior product which will wear out before Monday morning arrives. Because of the cheap price the Sunday only worshipper pays, he is left on Monday morning holding an empty bag. On the other hand, the daily worshipper pays a little higher price, but he has purchased a lasting product… eternal life with Jesus Christ.
Just how easy is it to pay the price the Lord asks of us?
Well, let’s take a look at it. We have only to follow the moral and legal law for the moral and legal code of ethics come from God’s Law and the Ten Commandments. Jesus tells you it is wrong to steal. The law of the land tells you it is wrong to steal. The Law of Jesus tells you not to take a life as does the law of the land. It is the same with committing adultery, slandering, and lying. The items the legal law doesn’t cover like obeying parents or thinking godly thoughts is covered under the moral code which is the Jesus code. I can remember as a little child, my mother stressing the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them to unto you.” This is the Jesus code. The price is right my good people! It is undoubtedly the cheapest price you will ever pay for anything!
If Jesus enters your heart this Sabbath morning because you have left the door even slightly ajar, please, please do not chase Him out when you leave church. Take Him home with you. Don’t force Christ to find other quarters because you refuse to pay the mere pittance He asks of you.
His wants are small.
His influence on you great.
You know, I think of my Lord and Savior as a sort of sunset, for I have never seen one that wasn’t beautiful. I have never seen one that didn’t tug, just a little bit, at the heart strings. I have never seen one that didn’t stir in me a sense of vastness, a sense of elation, and a sense of overwhelming goodness. Just so…
… as I think of the little Child in the manger in Bethlehem
… as I think of the Young Man preaching and healing by the Sea of Galilee
... as I think of the profusely perspiring sufferer in the Garden of Gethsemane
… as I think of the bowed and bloody crucified Christ on Golgotha
… just so do I feel a sense of vastness, a sense of elation; that He loved me so much. His agony and death are not beautiful, but the purpose behind them is beautiful beyond all comprehension.
If any of you have ever been to the South Pacific as I was during the last World War, you will know what I mean when I speak of beautiful sunsets. I witnessed so many beautiful sunsets from the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and was so enchanted by them, that I had to put on paper my impression of them. I don’t believe I have ever been any place on earth where I have felt closer to vivid colors of the sunset or to God; for the ocean and the sky merge as one on these small Pacific Islands. Writing poetry was one of my favorite pastimes during the long, lonely hours and this poem was one of the products of those hours. It is entitled “Sunset in the Soul” and it epitomizes very well our relationship with the Creator of all things even though neither God nor faith is mentioned in the poem.
ILLUSTRATION: Sunset In the Soul (Kermit F Borst)
Faded sunsets like faded pictures
Are as a beautiful book with pages unread.
They bring to the lonely heart no solace.
No joy to the forlorn soul… the soul unfed.
Their colors are still gay, that is true;
They linger an imprint upon the memory;
But to the man who looks with disinterest
The sunset is an idol untouched by finery.
Ah! He who see in the fading hues
A certain peace and contentment,
Pauses to look again with greedy stare
And finds no place in the heart for resentment.
I seem to see a great resemblance in the first few lines of this poem between the faded, almost forgotten sunset and the loving Christ, Who fades from the hearts of some of us as we pass from the portals of our church. The dim and faded Christ, like the faded sunsets and faded pictures, is indeed a beautiful book lying cast aside with pages unread. This faded Christ, just as these other things, brings no solace or joy or warmth. The soul is most surely unfed. Even though the brightness and magnificence of our Lord lingers on the memory, if we look with unseeing eyes, His brightness and magnificence does not register. If you and I look with disinterest, our Savior becomes as the sunset, an idol untouched by finery.
Yet you and I need to look on Him with a greedy stare, we need to strive to bring this fading Christ into focus; He will gladly remain with us and we will have no place in our heart for resentment. For Revelation 22:13 says Jesus is the “Alpha and the Omega.” May we not be too cheap to pay the measly price He asks. Our very acts tend to make it easier for us to pay His price as we progress steadily toward our ultimate reward of eternal life.
* Does Christ ask too much of you?
* Has He asked you to do anything unreasonable?
* Has He asked us to do anything which He Himself has not done?
Friends, my human weakness and your human weakness is to become forgetful after we leave the reverent atmosphere of this blessed house of God. We are all prone, to one degree or another, to let the vivid Jesus of this house of worship become a faded sunset in the daily conglomeration of color of daily life. We let Jesus pass out of our spirit as we pass along the hours and minutes of the weekdays.
If we keep Him locked there inside our hearts as we leave this morning, He will be there for us to look upon with a greedy stare, and we will not feel that Jesus Christ, Who paid a supreme sacrifice for us, is asking too much of us.
The price is right!
Will you gladly pay the price?
RE-READ JAMES 1:19-27 (ESV)
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
1. Cold Spring & South Highland Methodist Churches 10/18/59
2. Trinity and First Methodist Churches 7/16/61
3. East Point Nursing Home 7/28/63
4. Beacon Reformed 7/19/64
5. Ellenville Methodist Church 7/11/65
6. Rye Methodist Church 7/25/65
7. Cincinnati Christian Church 5/4/25
PRAYER
INVITATION
In the sermon, my grandfather wrote: “If Jesus enters your heart this Sabbath morning because you have left the door even slightly ajar, please, please do not chase Him out when you leave church. Take Him home with you. Don’t force Christ to find other quarters because you refuse to pay the mere pittance He asks of you. His wants are small. His influence on you great.”
This reminds me of Revelation 3:20 which says:
READ REVELATION 3:20 (ESV)
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”
If Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart, please let Him in. Allow Him to forgive and make a way for you to have an abiding relationship with God the Father by way of His blood in the power of the Holy Spirit. If you have a decision to make today, I invite you to come.
