~ Opening Prayer ~

We’ve been discussing all week how what we see of ourselves is not what we want to see, or what we say oftentimes will make us wish we’d just bitten our tongues. All of us do this, its human nature to forget our manners on occasion, especially when we’re afraid, angry or frustrated. It is hard to find people who are the epitome of peace and the drive to create such an intangible entity. Jesus was and is one, as were His disciples. Another is Mahatma Ghandi and two others include Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon. John Lennon you ask? John Lennon believed fully in spreading the word of peace, through music. In the tragic deaths of two of the three, by those who were not willing to show peace has power. Peace has power in that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and spreading word of His glory is what will bring peace to this world. This action of spreading peace, kindness, of all sorts, is beautifully portrayed in a book and a movie titled Pay It Forward. This movie stars Haley Joel Osment who is Trevor in the movie with Helen Hunt as his mother and Kevin Spacey as a Social Studies teacher with a challenge. The challenge is to do one thing that can change the world, even if it’s the world surrounding you alone. This is EXACTLY what Jesus did.

Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
      Bind them around your neck,
      Write them on the tablet of your heart,

Mercy and truth it says here. Don’t let them leave you. Bind them to you, it reads and write them on the tablet of your heart. I have a book titled Conspiracy of Kindness. Like Pay It Forward, this book by Steve Sjogren says to do something simply because someone is in trouble, or is in need. Mercy and truth are very powerful entities. Truth is something that is not always easily discerned. Kindness is often refused and even more often, never repaid.

Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Heal the sick.  This is something Jesus tells His disciples to do. Cleanse the lepers. Raise the dead and cast out demons. Boy, that’s a lot of work to do. He says freely you have received so freely give. He’s talking about the fact that they have been healed, shown the truth, given everlasting life for their work in following Jesus. This is Pay It Forward in ultimate capacity. We can Pay It Forward by showing kindness toward others, by witnessing and showing them just what Christ would be doing. Like Reverend Teresa said in Wednesday’s sermon about those little anagrams WWJD What Would Jesus Do? Well, if you believe Jesus would do something, figure out a way to do what you can to make it happen. This is Paying it Forward in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

~ Song ~ Alan Jackson ~ Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus ~

Matthew 10:27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

This series of verses, read it closely, listen to it. It says whatever is told you through Jesus, the Holy Spirit or God, if you hear it, shout it from the rooftops, testify to it and show no fear because though they might kill the body, others cannot kill the soul. The only one we should fear is the one that can destroy body and soul.  That is Satan. God knows our hearts, our souls, and our spirits, well enough to know how many hairs we each have on our heads. The next verses show us that when we walk in the path of righteousness, great and amazing things can follow.

A song that would fit here is titled Jesus Paid It All. I don’t have this one in my selections but I wanted you to hear the words. You can listen to the melody at www.cyberhymnal.org

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Refrain

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

Refrain

And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Refrain

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

Refrain

When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

Refrain

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down
All down at Jesus’ feet.

Refrain

(Evangelist Michael’s sermon titled Bam! You’re in Hell, tells the story of a man who, at the age of 42 died of a heart attack in the middle of his field, but it wasn’t his death that changed everything, it’s what his wife had to say the day after his death as she stood in the church at the pulpit, not a tear in her eye, not a catch in her voice. This is the way to Praise God, to believe that we are in Christ, we love Him and believe wholly in His life, by paying it forward, and giving His word a voice. She was paying it forward, sharing in the glory of the belief that her husband would be sitting with Jesus, talking with Jesus when she followed him one day in the future. This is a woman who literally just lost her husband not even a full day before, and yet, she believes so strongly that Jesus saved him because he so believed in Christ and the glory of eternal life. )

Matthew 10:40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

He who receives a prophet in the name of THE PROPHET shall receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a RIGHTEOUS MAN in the name of another RIGHTEOUS MAN shall receive a righteous man’s reward. It is rewarding to realize that we, when we follow in the path of Jesus and lead by example, by Paying It Forward, shall reap the rewards in so many ways, not here on this earthly plane, but as part of another one. This is the epitome of the essence of the book Conspiracy of Kindness written by Steve Sjogren, also the essence of the book and film Pay It Forward and the walk that Jesus took from birth to resurrection.

~ Song ~ Jesus Take the Wheel~ Carrie Underwood

Luke 10:33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’

Look at this, a Samaritan, like the little boy Trevor in Pay It Forward, helps an injured man, in Trevor’s case, it was a homeless man he fed, gave use of his shower, and asked him only to pay forward the kindness. The Samaritan does this very thing as he hands the innkeeper funds to allow the injured man to stay promising that more will be given when he returns. This is pay it forward in biblical terms. If you do this, more shall be brought to you.

Luke 17:11-18: 11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

We’ve spoken of lepers before in one or more of Rev. Teresa’s sermons. In this case, ten lepers beg for mercy and Jesus shows them mercy by healing them. They go off when He tells them to go see the priests and show themselves to them. Only one, I repeat, one, turned back when he realized he was healed. He did so and glorified God, shouting out this glorious sound of unfathomed joy, falling down on his face before Jesus and thanking Him with all his heart. This man received the mercy, the understanding, in full, unlike his friends whose eyes did not open so they did not see truth. Trevor, in the movie, did his own version of Pay It Forward, he found people who needed help and did what he could to help them. He defended those decisions, and in the end, paid for it with his life. John 15:13 says Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Trevor did just that, he laid down his life for a friend. Yet, the bravery he displayed was enough to have those who ended his life come forward and mourn his loss.  Jesus paid the ultimate price in the process of Paying It Forward. He died for billions of people who weren’t even born on the day He was crucified. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. He was humiliated, beaten, stabbed, nailed hand and foot to a cross, hung out in the burning desert sun, and He died. He rose again, resurrected to sit beside God the Father until the Day of Judgment. Jesus paid it forward, by bathing our ancestors in the blood of His crucifixion, in the water of His life, and feeding us in the bread of His body, and for that, we should shout it to the housetops, we are Christians and we shall share the love of God and the light of Jesus Christ, forever. He paid it forward, paying the ultimate price. The others mentioned, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and even John Lennon paid with their lives to shower us with peace. These people proved that one idea can change the world. Jesus Christ did this very thing, He proved that ONE IDEA could indeed change the world, that idea is CHRISTIANITY, the legacy of the SON OF GOD, the legacy of eternally Paying It Forward. So now, why don’t we continue that idea and Pay It Forward in our own lives. We do this as we profess our faith and if you are ready to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, we close with prayer and will play our closing song.

~ Closing Prayer ~

~ Closing Song ~ Open the Eyes of my Heart ~ Randy Travis

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Reverend-Laura/2008/09/07/WolfPoet-Ministries-Sunday-Sermon-How-Do-You-Pay-It-Forward