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Secrets of Abundant Living

DOING THE SECRET

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James 1:22-25

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Abundant living comes through service.

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

November 25, 2007=

In 1985, we had just m= oved to Lake Village, Arkansas. I was the new Methodist preacher in town, and I was trying to get to know my people as fast as I could. I was making visits right and left= . I had just been to the hospital in= Greenville, Mississippi, which is right across the river from Lake Village, and I was hurrying home to stay busy with other things. Suddenly, as I began the long asce= nt up the bridge across the Mississippi River,= the traffic slowed to a crawl. Now understand, they never have traffic jams in the delta, unless you’re behind a tractor or a combine.

When I got to the top = of the bridge, I discovered what had slowed us down. There was an old, beat-up green pi= ck-up truck stalled on the bridge. = Inside the car was a young blond-haired woman, and there were two little girls and= a baby in the seat beside her. = It was a hot summer day, and here they were stranded a hundred feet above the Mississippi River.= I could see the frustration in the young mother’s face as I sl= owly passed by.

That’s right. I passed her by. I was new to the area, after all.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I didn’t know them; they mig= ht be afraid of me. It was 95 degre= es out there. I had pressing matters= to attend to. I made every excus= e in the book all the way back to Lake Village.=

Those excuses held unt= il the next Sunday morning, as I walked into church to get ready to preach. When I opened the door, right ther= e in the entryway stood the young mother from the bridge! She smiled at me and said, “= Hi, my name is Kandi, and I hope your sermon this morning is not on the Good Samaritan!”

Fortunately, there was forgiveness for my sin, and we became great friends. Next spring, I get to do the weddi= ng for one of those little girls.

The bridge incident wasn’t the first—and wouldn’t be the last—time I had blown an opportunity to put my faith into action, to respond to the call of= God to serve. That’s the final secret I want to share with you today: the secret of service, putting your faith into action, doing what God wants us = to do. When I have answered the = call to serve God, I have found fulfillment, meaning, purpose, and joy in my life. This is what abundant l= iving is all about.

I love the statement b= y Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous medical doctor and missionary to Africa, as he was addressing a college graduation.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He said, “One thing I know: = The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who will have sought = and found how to serve.”[1]

This last secret of ab= undant living contains both a warning and a promise. We find the key idea in the Letter= of James: “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”[2] Action is part of our faith. The relationship with God in our h= eart motivates our bodies to work in his service. Don’t be deceived; faith req= uires works. A little later in this letter, James writes, “What g= ood is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?= 221; (Actually, it does, but that’s another argument.) “If a brother or a sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of = you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and y= et you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no w= orks, is dead.”[3] As human beings and as childr= en of God, we are wired for service. We were put together with a capacity to do things for God and other people.

John Wesley, the found= er of the Methodist movement, always kept these two ideas in balance. He believed strongly in the realit= y of grace, the necessity of conversion, and salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. But he balanced inner= faith with outer works. The early Methodists were known for their service to the poor, the hungry, the lost, = and the illiterate in 18^th century <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">England. Historians say that it was the soc= ial welfare programs of the Methodists in that time period that saved England= from a civil war.

A great contemporary e= xample of the secret of service is Mr. Truett Cathy. He started and built the Chick-fil= -a restaurant chain, starting in 1946. You can buy a Chick-fil-a sandwich in over 1,300 locations in 37 sta= tes, but you can’t buy one on Sunday, because they’re closed. Truett Cathy would rather lose mil= lions of dollars in sales and honor the Lord’s Day.

In his very first restaurant, Mr. Cathy hired people regardless of race and expected everyone= to work together. That was unusu= al in the 1940’s. He used the profits from his restaurant chain to start a string of homes for abandoned = and troubled kids—eleven in the U.S., and one in Brazil. A foundation he set up provides thousands of dollars in scholarships for kids every year and runs a youth c= amp. And Truett Cathy still teaches a S= unday School class for 13-year-old boys, as he has for 50 years.

Cathy’s biography lists 20 grandchildren and 150 “foster grandchildren,” young pe= ople he supported and mentored who became productive adult citizens. One of them, Woody Faulk, gave a g= ood summary of Truett Cathy’s character: “A lot of people look at Truett as Santa Claus, but he’s not.= He’ll meet you halfway so that you can learn a lesson from the process. He’s the personification of James 1:22: ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and= so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’ I sincerely owe = my life to that man.”[4] Truett Cathy has lived abunda= ntly.

So why do we have such= a hard time learning this lesson? We= leave young mothers and children stranded on the road. We spend our energy on ourselves, = making sure we’re having enough fun. We spend our money as if it all belonged to us, when in fact none of= it really does. We turn our hear= ts inward until we are wrapped up so tightly within ourselves that we just disappear! That’s why t= he secret comes with a warning, and the warning is this: hearing the Word with= out doing it is worthless. <= /o:p>

James says, “If any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they loo= k at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.̶= 1;= = [5] If we’re not putting our faith into action in some way, it’s like we walk out of church and the memory of who we are and what we’re all about just dissipates, like a dream when we wake up, and we just go our merry way—no different, no better, no more compassionate, no more merciful, no more loving that your average good-hearted heathen, until it’s time to go to church again n= ext Sunday. That’s not abun= dant living!

Fortunately, God gives= us an abundance of opportunities to serve him.&n= bsp; We don’t even have to look very hard. Every day presents the possibility= that we can be doers of the word and put our faith in action. Here at the church= , we have all kinds of ministries—from the infants to the elderly, music a= nd mission and maintenance, education and hospitality ministries to be done. There are also projects outside the church, community missions with the needy and disadvantaged. What better way to put your faith = in action than to help someone who has a need? Doing faith like that will bring y= ou abundant living.

That is the promise of= this secret. Be doers of the word,= and not hearers only, and you will be blessed with abundant life. Scripture promises, “Those who look into the perfect law, t= he law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget, but doers who act—they will be blessed in = their doing.”[6] You will be blessed in at= least two ways.

First, you will fulfil= l more of your potential as a human being. None of us ever fulfills every possibility in our lives. We never function at 100% capacity= . Only Jesus did that. But putting our faith in action wi= ll help us be more of what God created us to be, more of a witness of the power and possibility and grace and goodness of God.

In 1528, the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca left Cuba with 600 soldiers to explore the American wilderness. They lost 200 soldiers in a storm = at sea. Then they landed near present-day Tampa, = Florida, and made their way west. Disease, starvation, and attacks f= rom natives depleted their ranks even more.&nb= sp; Finally a remnant got on a boat and sailed to Texas, where they were captured and imprisoned for eight years. F= inally Cabeza de Vaca and one other soldier escaped and made it to a Spanish settlement in Mexico= . It was not what you would call a successful expedition.

Throughout this incred= ibly grueling ordeal, de Vaca kept a journal. At one point, near the end of the journey, de Vaca and the one lone soldier that was left came upon some Indi= ans who asked them to cure their sick. The two Spaniards were starving and near despair. But the Indians thought these strange-looking men must be gods, so they begged them for healing.

Cabeza de Vaca knew th= ey did not possess any such supernatural powers, but he also knew they had to do something or they would die. = So he and the other soldier prayed for strength.= He wrote, “We prayed on bended knee and in the agony of hunger= .” Then they stood up and blessed the= sick among the Indians. “To = our amazement,” de Vaca wrote, “they said they were well. We were more than we thought we were. To be more than I thoug= ht I was, was an utterly new sensation to me.”[7]

You can be more than y= ou ever thought you were. You ca= n let God have control of your life and infuse your service with an unexplainable= and supernatural power that goes beyond what you could ever hope to do on your own. You can do things that a= re far beyond your natural abilities, that you are not equipped or inclined to do,= if you let God work through you. As Paul said, “I can do all thin= gs through him who strengthens me.”[8] Nothing is impossible with God= ! Put your faith into action, and you’ll see.

Finally, when we are d= oers of the word, we are blessed because in serving, we serve our Lord Jesus Christ. The last parable that= Jesus told in the Gospel of Matthew is the story of the great judgment at the end= of time. The Son of Man will sit= on the throne and separate the good people from the bad like the sheep from the goats. To the good sheep on t= he right hand he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inhe= rit the kingdom prepared for you.” And what is the basis of this reward? “You fed me when I was hungr= y, gave me something to drink when I was thirsty, welcomed me when I was a stranger, clothed me when I was naked, and visited me when I was sick or in prison.”

The sheep, being the m= odest animals that they are, ask the Son of Man, “When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and gave you a drink, or a stranger and welcomed y= ou, or naked and clothed you, or sick or in prison and visited you? Surely we would have noticed!̶= 1;

The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, replies to the righteous disciples, “Truly, I tell you, as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”[9] When we put our faith into action b= y any kind of service whatsoever—to the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the young, the old, the churched, the unchurched—we are serving Christ. That’s the face of Jesus we = see in the face of the one we serve.

Dr. Tony Campolo, a nationally-known teacher, author and speaker, was walking down Chestnut Street in Philadelphia one = morning when he was approached by a filthy bum.&nb= sp; The guy was covered with soot from head to toe and had a huge beard. There were pieces of f= ood stuck in the beard that had been there for a while. He was walking down the street mum= bling to himself with his hands cupped around a cup of McDonald’s coffee.

When he spotted Campol= o, dressed in his suit and overcoat, he said, “Hey, mister, want some of= my coffee?”

Campolo wanted to be n= ice, so he took the coffee cup and drank some of it. He gave it back to the man and sai= d, “You’re being pretty generous giving away your coffee this morning. What’s gotten = into you that you’re sharing your coffee?”

The man said, “W= ell, the coffee was especially delicious this morning, and I figured if God gives you something good you ought to share it with people.”

Tony could feel the se= t-up coming, but he walked right into it anyway. “Is there anything I can giv= e you in return?” He expected= a hit for five bucks at least.

But the man said, “Yeah, you can give me a hug.”

Tony would rather have= given him five dollars! The man put= his grimy arms around Campolo and he put his arms around him and tried to avoid contact with that humongous, food-encrusted beard. Then he realized the bum= was not letting him go. He was ho= lding on. There they were, the bum off the street and the nationally known profes= sor and speaker, locked in an embrace on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. People stared as they passed, and Campolo felt embarrassed.

But then his embarrass= ment turned to awe, as he realized whom he was hugging. He heard the voice echo down the corridors of time: “I was hungry.&nb= sp; Did you feed me? I was naked. Did you clothe me? I was sick. Did you care for me? I was the bum you met on Chestnut Street. Did you hug me? For if you did it to one of the le= ast of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me. And if you failed to do it to one = of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you failed to do it to me.”= [10] In every act of service, we are lo= oking at the face of Jesus.

Here is the secret: be= a doer of the word. Here is the warning: If you are not a doe= r, your faith is nothing. Here i= s the promise: If you are a doer, y= ou will be blessed, because you will be what God created you to be. You will be blessed because you are serving your Lord. You will be blessed with abundant life. A= men!