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“We
Are the Lord’s”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Romans 14: 1 – 12
“If
we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so
then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.”
Dear Sisters and Brothers, we belong to God.
We are the adopted children of God the Father.
We are really sisters and brothers of our Lord Jesus.
And we are the ones, whom the Holy Spirit is so devoted to, in
our hearts, to bring us where we truly see and believe that the deepest
personal love in our lives is our eternal family in Them.
This is the true greatest reality of who we are.
As we grow in seeing this about ourselves, we will be so amazed
at its grace that it will often change in us how we see and relate to
others.
When the subject and discussion of non-personal issues within the
service and worship of God are present at a time in our lives with other
people, even if we disagree with some, we are not to pass a certain kind
of judgment that implies they are not really Christians.
Just as we are the Lord’s, so are they.
I went to Reformed Theological Seminary, in Jackson Miss., to receive my
Master of Divinity degree. That
seminary is classified by all as very conservative.
I went to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, here in
Texas, to receive my Doctor of Ministry degree.
That seminary is classified by all as very liberal.
Well, one of the communications that go on between these two seminaries
is this: RTS says, “If you will see us as scholars, then we will see
you as Christians.” APTS
says, “If you see us as Christians, then we will see you as
scholars.”
Of course, a more spiritual communication,” for
God has welcomed them,” RTS may say, “We know you are
Christians, and because you are scholars, we would love you to recognize
our scholarship and communicate with us about it.”
APTS may say, in response, “RTS, that is a very good idea.
If we study each other and communicate lovingly together, then
God may very well help us both to move forward in understanding our
faith.”
We are not to make the kind of judgment against another Christian, or
Christian Church, that they are not really the Lord’s.
But still, one character of the Lord’s churches is discipline.
And we may very well be a part of that.
I started college at Montreat-Anderson College, in Montreat, NC.
It is a Presbyterian college.
Billy Graham, a Baptist, lives there.
His wife, Ruth, and her side of the family were always
Presbyterians. Her nephew
is an Associate Minister at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church, here
in Dallas.
One of my first friends at college was an African young man from
Ethiopia. In the early 80’s, communists were starting a war in his
country. He and eleven
other young men decided that they were going to escape their home and
run their way to Egypt. To
make it there, they had to run across Sudan, which is a desert, and two
of them died. He finally made it to Alexandria, Egypt.
In a few weeks he got a job in a restaurant.
Later that year the President of our college took a trip to Egypt.
He met the young Ethiopian in the restaurant. And the President,
after he learned the young man’s story, made and paid for all the
arrangements to move him from Egypt to Montreat-Anderson College.
Through all these miraculous situations, God brought him into our
Christian faith. He is the
Lord’s. When I left Montreat, this friend of mine was taking Billy
Graham’s sermons, translating them into his Ethiopian language, and
mailing them back to his family at home.
In a couple of years, Billy Graham and the Montreat Presbyterian
Church moved his mother and brother to our USA.
Okay, now that we have heard this amazing, astonishing story, there is
one more event in his conversion time that I want to tell you. After being brought to the college, learning about
Christianity, and that Jesus Christ is his Lord; he decided to go to
church one Sunday. In a
town near Montreat, he walked into a church.
Soon after being there, someone walked up to him and said,
“Blacks do not come to this church.
Get out of here.”
That was something that meant he certainly needed to learn more about
USA’s history, social, and political issues.
This was also very personal.
It hurt him. Still,
that church is the Lord’s. However,
the one who told him to get out of there, maybe with some others, or
possibly the whole church, they are the Lord’s; and the Lord knows
what kind of discipline is needed for them to learn that they don’t
live to themselves, in order to justify their prejudice.
They belong to the Lord.
We are never to despise other Christians.
We all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. What God is going to do for all of us, is to show us, and
teach us, that Jesus is not simply the tool God used to fix the world.
Jesus is the fixed world. We
use to live in the old world, where we basically figured that we were at
the center of it all. Everything
was about us.
Now we live in the new world. The
new world is Jesus Christ. We
all live in Jesus Christ, the new world.
In another church, about 15 years ago, one Sunday evening, I got two
calls from church members who wanted to meet with me on Monday. About 9am the first one walked in the office, looked me
in my eyes and said, “That was the greatest sermon I have ever
heard.” We sat and talked
about it for an hour. About
11am the second one walked in the office, looked me in my eyes and said,
“How dare you say something like that as a sermon.”
We sat and talked about it for an hour.
Well, you know which one I wanted to believe.
And we are being told by the Word of God not to judge or despise
any other Christians, because we all stand before the judgment seat of
God. I may not hate the
person who hated my sermon. God
the Father is the judge. God
the Son takes on our place and allows himself to be crucified and raised
from the dead to free us all from the evil in this world.
God the Holy Spirit is creating ways for us to see and believe
that we are the Lord’s.
So, now we can see any Christian, and realize to ourselves,”If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so
then, whether we live or whether we die, we are [all] the Lord's.”
Let us pray …
Amen.
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