Sunday, February 12, 2006

February 12, 2006--Lost Causes Sermon Notes

Note: Post here taken from loose outline notes of pastor. Actual delivered sermon may have varied, but these are some of the key points. No video available...sorry!

Text: Luke 19:10; Hebrews 11:1; 1John 5:4

I was watching a movie the other night with some friends. It was a James Stewart classic, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." I would highly recommend it. It is about a Joe average guy named Jeff Smith who is selected to fill out the remaining term of a recently deceased US Senator. Along the way, Mr. Smith fights for freedom and liberty, and finds out about some of the unseemlyness in Washington.

There were a couple of quotes from the movie: "The lost causes are the ones worth fighting for." and, "Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books." Let's extrapolate that last one. "Salvation is too precious a thing to be buried in the legalese of religion." How about that one?

But, this sermon is about lost causes. As the Scriptures we read show us, Jesus came to find us. We were His lost cause. He came to find us and fight for us.

Mr. Smith thought the ideals he had been raised on were worth fighting for. He thought the notion of a boys national camp to exchange ideals and gain love for country was the right thing for him to do. And what did he get for his noble aims of service? He faced ruination by other senators. He faced disgrace, and a smear campaign. Sound familiar?

Jesus faced the same things. He thought our salvation was worth fighting for. Look at him. He went from being a loveable carpenter crackpot prophet to public enemy no. 1. He went from being a popular public curiosity and distraction to an insurrectionist. And why? In both cases, it involves people thinking the cause was lost, it involves playing ball, compromising our values.

The senators in Mr Smith thought that you had to "play ball to get ahead", to make deals. That way, we don't end up in lost causes like merely seeking after God. We don't get that loser label in the eyes of the world that we talked about last week. See, he thought enough about us to fight for us, to die for us. Mr. Smith thought enough of his cause to do the same.

Christ calls us to fight for lost causes, because he fought for us. We truly were lost. I mean, look at the Israelites. The Pharisees and other religious leaders had gone from being spiritual leaders to practicioners of pure legalism. They lost their way. We can too if we fall prey to that sense of just worrying about our power and our prestige. That is what became of those leaders. They made deals and sold out to the world and legalism. Christ came to free the Israelites from that, as well as to free us Gentiles from being lost in sin. And all of us are lost. Trust me. Look at how many times God has responded to lost causes in the Bible, how many times the Israelites turned away. Yet he still keeps on fighting the Lost cause, because he wants us to get lost to this world and be found by Him. He sent Christ to do that.

By becoming "LOST" himself, Christ found us. In that pit of sin and death he fell into, he found us and set us free. Much as Jimmy Stewart's character found friends he set free from the stigma and jadedness of Washington, Christ found us and sees us as a lost cause worth fighting for, so we can get lost in Him, so we can lose our cares on Him.

We, however, need to have that faith of the mustard seed to join Christ in fighting for the Lost causes, as that is what he calls us to do. We need to have that faith that Christ had in us, of seeing the tremendous potential we have, that essence of things hoped for, assurance of the unseen goodness in us. We need to see that in others. We need to be that Lost Cause crusader that Christ was for us. See, in that way, we are showing our own faith in things hoped for, the assurance of things not seen in loving the unloveable, in helping those downtrodden. We are showing the fruition of Christ's faith in us, and it is something to aspire to. Christ has faith in us, can't we have faith in his ability to equip us to help others and extend the kingdom?

Some people ask me why I am still here at New Hope. These are folks in the ministry. They think we are a lost cause. They say, you know, you only have this, you don't have that. You havent done this. Well, friends. Let me tell you about the lost causes here. I would have never thought when I left school in 1996 that I would be here. But God took this lost cause in me and here we are, and we have thrived. We have grown. Look at Bible School. When we started it, I thought, no way. And it has grown tremendously. Look at the lives changed. Fighting for Lost Causes makes us more of Christ's family. After all, He fought for each of us, and we know how lost we were. We need to have that same faith he had in us, so that when the time comes, we can all see the kingdom together. So, fellow lost causes, thank God that we have these things to lose ourselves in and fight for, and thank God that our lost cause has been redeemed by Christ!

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