Now, first let me tell you that I used to be a very faithful viewer to the original Mickey Mouse Club. I used to watch it every day. I knew all of them by name and I really enjoyed that program. Of course, I was only about 8 years old at the time, too.
Have you ever heard the expression, “Nothing is sacred anymore?” That is how I felt when I heard the following news story a few years ago.
One of the original mouseketeers, Billie Jean, sued Disneyland. Seems that at the age of 52, she took her grandchildren to Disneyland so they could enjoy the day at the amusement park. Everything went well, at least until they started to leave and go home.
If you have ever been there, you know that the parking lot is absolutely huge!
Well, she took her grandchildren and walked all the way out to where her car was, and then it happened. She was robbed – right there in Disneyland’s parking lot.
The security officers came and made sure they were all okay, and then took them all back in to the security office to fill out the appropriate paperwork. Now, up until now, everything was fine. But the reason she is suing them could have only happened in California.
While they were in the security office filling out paperwork, the Disney characters came in and got out of their costumes in sight of the grandchildren. And that is why she is suing her former employer.
In her lawsuit, Ms. Matay said that is how her young grandchildren learned that the characters were not real. And she said that was a cruel and harsh way for her grandchildren to come to grips with the reality that those characters were not real.
Well, it is my expressed feeling that all of us have to come to grips with reality at different points in our lives, and sometimes, it is not nice and easy to deal with! One of the hardest ways for us to come to grips with reality is when we try to understand that God actually is able and willing to help us in our times of need.
MARK 1:40-45 – [read]
In our text, we see several things this morning. First, the man with leprosy comes to Jesus and says,
“If You want to, You can make me well again.”
This man knew in his heart that Jesus could do it. At this point, Jesus’ popularity was soaring and there is no doubt that the leper head heard all kinds of stories about how Jesus healed the sick, calmed the storms, tamed demons and restores sight to the blind.
So, we can see that this man did, in fact, know Jesus had the power to heal him. However, it is also evident that this man did not know if Jesus would want to heal him.
Do people today believe that Jesus is able to do things for them? As sure as the non-believers are about everything to do with Jesus, polls still show that the majority of them confess that Jesus can do things. Of course, those same polls show that the majority of non-believers think Jesus is unwilling to do anything for them.
That is very sad, but there is something even sadder. Supposedly, the same poll taken among those who call themselves Christians, show almost the same percentage points that believe the exact same way. It is like people view Jesus as some kind of a little god who just doesn’t care about us.
In the last 25 years, the world has seen more inventions than all together in history before then. In addition to that, all of us are able to know what is happening all over the world within a few minutes of the occurrence, thanks to CNN and Fox News. I personally think that society in general is on absolute over-load.
We have been desensitized to the natural wonders of God. It seems that today, we try to forget about the Holy aspect of our God, or the ability He has to do whatever he wants – when He wants – and how He wants. To most people, that seems to make them feel too uncomfortable to think about.
So, I don’t think it is because people don’t believe in God anymore, but it’s just that they don’t believe that He’s too much of a God. He might have the ability to help them, but they don’t think He has the desire to help them. The biggest problem with that way of thinking is that we have just stopped depending on Him like we should be.
We have all kinds of new drugs on the market that help us feel better. Of course, if you listen to the commercials, the drug might help your arthritis, but it could also give you a heart attack or could even kill you. But, THANK GOD! It will at least make you ’feel’ better while it does all those things that hurt you! I am not saying medicine is bad, but I do think we should depend on God for the cure rather than these medicines for a ’quick fix’.
There has been some talk among Christian scholars as to whether we humans have instincts or not. I would say that we do. The reason I say that is not because I believe in evolution, but I have seen too many instances when people deny God in their lives, but when something horrific comes up, their instinct always makes them call out to God for help.
There is the story about little Tommy. He just started kindergarten, and his mother would walk him to school every morning. Well, after the first week, he told his mother that the other kids were calling him a baby, because she wouldn’t let him walk alone.
Now the mother didn’t want her son to be called names, but she also was too worried to let him go out on his own at that early age, so she talked to her neighbor, Shirley Goodnest.
She knew that Shirley always put her baby, Marcy, in the stroller and walked down the street in the morning, so she asked if she would keep an eye on Tommy. Shirley agreed.
At the end of the week, one of the other boys remarked that the lady with the stroller had been stalking them all week. Tommy told them that she was his next-door neighbor and that she was going to follow him the rest of his life.
He said that each night at bedtime, his mother would read the 23rd PSALM, and then she would say that Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me, all the days of my life.
As bad as that joke may have been, the theology of it is absolutely correct. God is with us. He is with us al the days of our lives, and He is able and willing to do whatever He wants, no matter what we may think.
In EPHESIANS 3:20, it says,
‘Now, glory be to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope for.’
This may come as a real shocker to a lot of people, but the problem is not with God. The problem is with us! In this modern society, we have created the sense that we can take care of ourselves and that we do not need God. That has robbed us of our sense of God’s presence and His wondrous power.
A man with leprosy came to Jesus because he knew that Jesus could heal him. Do we know down deep in our hearts today that Jesus is able to help us with every problem we have? Do we have the knowledge that Jesus can heal us if He wants to?
The man with leprosy knew Jesus was able to heal him. What he wanted to know was whether or not Jesus was willing to heal him. Mark tells us that the man kneeled in front of Jesus and pleaded, “If You want to, You can make me well again/”
“If you want to ….” Think about that for a minute. It makes perfect sense. The Master was able to heal the man. But, did the Master care enough about the man to heal him? After all, it seems that many were in need of His help, so why would Jesus care enough about this lowly leper to take the time to help him out?
We know by reading the Scriptures, that Jesus was filled with compassion.
In VERSE 41, it says Jesus was moved with pity. It says Jesus touched him and said,
‘I want to, be healed.”
Mark goes on to tell us that the leprosy left the man immediately. What does that tell us today? If Jesus was moved with emotion and took the time to stop and heal that man of leprosy, don’t you think he feels that same emotion for us and would gladly take the time to help us - - if we would just go to him like the leper did?
There is the story of a doctor is walking down a country road in the backwoods of Vermont. He comes to a fork in the road and doesn’t know which one to take. There is an old Vermont farmer sitting on the fence, so he asks the farmer, “Does it matter which road I take to get to town?” The farmer looks at him and says, “Not to me it doesn’t.”
The farmer didn’t care about the doctor or his plight. But one thing is very important to remember. Jesus cares very much for us and the situations we get ourselves into.
As a side note, let me say that I cannot find any instance in the Bible when someone asked Jesus to heal them, that He did not take the time to do so. That should tell us a lot, too, about what Jesus would love to do for us today. What an upbeat thought that is for such a downbeat world we live in.
So, we should know by now that Jesus is still very able to heal and help us. We should also know by now that He is also very willing to do so. That leaves one question still to be asked: WHAT ABOUT US?
Are we willing to believe that Jesus is still able? Are we willing to accept the fact that He is still willing? So, the only question now becomes, not if Jesus is able, but are we able?
Notice how the story ends. After Jesus healed the man, Jesus sent him away, telling him not to tell anyone about his healing. But the man ignored Jesus and told everyone he met. Now, I am not saying it is right to disobey Jesus, but I think I understand why the man told people.
Leprosy was the worst thing that could happen to individuals back then. When a person caught leprosy, they were exiled away from the entire town, out into the desert. Many times, their home and all their belongings were burned, and then their families were told to leave, too. Lepers were considered unclean and were considered the dredges of society.
And this man was instantly healed! Now, I think that most people in that condition would do just what he did; tell everyone in your path what had happened. The passage goes on to say that because the man told others, soon Jesus couldn’t even go into a town openly because of all the people who would gather around.
But something happened that was pretty neat, too. As he stayed outside the towns, preaching and teaching, the crowds went to Him! People back then, and people today are so hungry to hear the true Word of God. The problem today is that you have to be very careful, as not all the Word you hear is true or from God.
As it turned out, I think this leper was the world’s first evangelist. Maybe today’s church could use a little of his excitement. In most churches today, we have become so comfortable that we serve us instead of the Lord. We do things for the church because it makes us feel good, not because we are thinking about serving God. We have ended up taking our Lord for granted, and that inhibits us from doing anything for Him.
Oh, we keep very busy doing things, but not with the right heart. We focus on our feelings, not on His. All God wants is for us to truly love others from the inner recesses of our hearts; enough to tell them about what Jesus has done for us. Let me ask you a very hard question: Being honest, when is the last time you gave a witness to anyone about Jesus and His plan of salvation? Let me ask you another question: Have you ever done so? And if not, why not?
I will give you some very true information right now. If you will start searching out people to share Jesus with, every single thing in your life will take a sharp turn for the better. It is not enough to just serve the church anymore. Too many of us have fallen into that trap.
It is crucial that we have a daily ministry to others; not just for their sakes, but for our own, as well. I think it is impossible to receive all of God’s wonderful blessings, and just keep it within our own lives. I think that if we do not get filled up enough to go tell others, we don’t have enough for our own good.
Jesus was willing to sacrifice His time and His convenience. He was even willing to sacrifice His life for us, wasn’t He? There is another question that begs to be asked at this point: Are we willing to sacrifice a little of ourselves for others, or are we just willing to stay in the cocoon we have made?
In his novel, “A Tale of Two Cities”, Charles Dickens tells about two men; Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.
Darnay was an innocent Frenchman, yet he ended up a victim of the French Revolution. He was in jail, sentenced to die by guillotine.
Carton on the other hand, lived life without any thought to consequences. He was the ‘footloose and fancy free’ type person I spoke about last week. But, he and Darnay had become good friends, so upon hearing of Darnay’s fate, Cartoon devised a plan to trade places with him.
The night before the execution, Carton enters the prison for a final visit with Darnay. He drugs him, changes clothes with him, and has him taken out of the prison. The guards notice nothing.
The next day, as Carton faces the guillotine, a young girl looks into his face and recognizes that he is not Darnay.
She asked, “Are you dying for him?” Cartons answers, “…and for his wife and child.” Then, he climbs the stairs to his death.
Carton loved Darnay enough to die for him. Jesus loved you enough to die for you, too. Can you love someone else just enough to tell them about Jesus? Only you can decide whether or not you will do that for Jesus, but if you decide not to, you’d better start preparing your excuse now for Judgment Day. It won’t help then, but it might make you feel better tonight.
INVITATION
