SPECIAL DAYS: Communion Sunday, Epiphany Sunday

January 5, 2003 - LESSON: John 1:1-4, 10-18

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1. Have you ever felt boxed in?
1. Life has closed in on you.
2. Your options have been reduced.
3. Something has happened that is confining and debilitating.
4. You are unable to achieve what it is that you would like to accomplish.

MAIN BODY:

1. Story of person in pit.
1. Confucius comes by and,

Had. you obeyed my teaching you would, not have landed, where you are now, He waved, his hand. and left saying, "If you ever manage to get yourself out, be careful to follow my teaching.

1. How many times have we heard this advice.
2. We have the teachings but we are still bound
3. Remember what Paul wrote in Romans 7:

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:21-25

4. We may have the instructions but they do not have the capacity of helping us in gaining release from the pit.
2. Buddha walks by and says,

My child, you have to quit the condition in which you find yourself. Rest down there where you are. Fold you arms and begin to think. You will find. nirvana, the peace we all desire

I called back and said: Father Buddha, if you could help me get out of here I would be so thankful. Then I shall with great ease follow your instructions But in this horrible place, how can I rest?

1. Buddha did not get him out of the well.
2. The man was left in the pit in dispair.
3. A third figure came.

He wasted no time in offering words, but reached. down and pulled, him out. What it your name. I am Jesus of Nazareth. And I followed, him and. have never been disappointed.

2. Into this world. Jesus came. God. revealed in human form.
1. Jesus reveals truth.
1. The truth about the world we live in.
2. The truth about the human condition.
3. Most importantly of all, the truth about God.
2. He came to rescue us.
1. Rescue requires recognition.
2. Recognition brings with it the possibilities of acquiring all that is needed to bring out all the best that is within us.
3. Jesus offers to pull us out of the pit of doubt and despair so that we have the capacity to place our feet upon a rock.
3. How does he do this?
1. To all who received him, who believed in him he gives power to become children of God.

Strong's Number G1849, dîïõóßá, exousia, ex-oo-see'-ah, From G1832 (in the sense of ability); privilege, that is, (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence:--authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.

1. Capacity.
2. Freedom
3. Liberty
4. Strength
2. He helps us to maintain our P R I O R I T I E S ⁽¹⁾

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said, No. Patience is a byproduct of
tribulations; it isn't granted, it is earned.

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said, No. I give you blessings.
Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said, No. Suffering draws you apart
from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.
God said, No. You must grow on your own,
but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
God said, No. I will give you life so that
you may enjoy all things.

I asked God to help me LOVE others, as
much as God loves me.
God said ... Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.

Stop telling God how big your storm is.
Instead, tell your storm how big your GOD is.

1. Jesus and the disciples were crossing the lake when a great storm arose.
1. Some of the disciples were fisherman.
2. They knew about storms.
3. This one threatened to overwhelm them.
4. The cried out to Jesus who was peacefully sleeping.
5. He rebuked the wind and the waves and there was calm.
6. He challenged their faith.
7. We can seek help from God to calm the storms of life.
3. Jesus helps us to have a faith that is strong enough to believe
1. Faith is a walk with someone in whom we trust.
2. Mary Zingsheim was a marvelous ccourageous and faithful person who had a deep and sustaining relationship with Jesus Christ.
3. Her husband Don gave me this poem to read at her funeral.

I call it, Mary Zingsheim's poem "Nobody Walks Alone."

Of times when the highway of life seems rough
And all your dreams have flown,
Just remember, wherever your road may go,
Nobody walks alone.

When everything else has let you down
And under your sins you groan,
Just keep reminding your burdened heart,
Nobody walks alone,

Then suddenly you'll feel his hand in yours,
And his eyes lifting up your own,
And you'll hear his gentle, forgiving voice;
"Nobody walks alone."

4. Jesus has the capacity to help us develop the courage we need that is large enough to finish the journey.

Story of two frogs.

Two frogs fell into a pail of cream.
One said. All is lost,
there is nothing left to do but drown,
so he sank beneath the surface and drowned.

The other said, I am not going to give up without a struggle.
So he paddled and paddled,
and before you know it,
the cream had turned to butter and the frog hopped out.

1. What is spoken of here is endurance.
2. Endurance is not glamorous.
3. Endurance is sticking to the need until it is realized.

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CONCLUSION

"When Michelangelo was a little boy, one of his friends gave him a small Greek sculpture of a human form, half chiseled from the marble. For the rest of his life, Michelangelo kept that little statue by his bed. It was the last thing he saw before he went to sleep, the first thing he saw when he awoke. For him it became a symbol of man's anguished effort to be liberated from the prison of his own ignorance. Michelangelo devoted his whole life to freeing figures from stone. Sometimes it would take him months, even years. Always he began with a vision of the man or the woman locked up in the stone. He said, 'It is my job, my task, to set that man, that woman, free.' Such was the inspiration of the great man - and, indeed, such was the inspiration of the great movement, of which he was an exemplar - the Renaissance, as we call it today." ⁽²⁾

1. Jesus Christ sees within each of us the person who is in the pit.
1. It is his job to help set us free.
2. It is not easy.
3. At time it may be painful.
4. But it is worth eternity to Christ and to each of us.
2. No matter what happens keep on keeping on.

DON''T YOU QUIT (Helga has it on a wall-hanging.)

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road your trudgin' seems all uphill,
When the finds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When you might have won had you stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow.
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out.
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when your hardest hit,
It's when things seem worse that you must not quit.

1. Source unknown.

2. George Ross, "Let Us Live Before We Die," Akron, Ohio

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