"Just As I Am"
Hymns • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro:
Intro:
We are beginning our hymn series
Review the quote Sammy referenced last we:
We can gather that hymns are, unlike psalms, not written by
divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. However, the hymns we should
sing are filled with Scriptural truth and sound doctrine. Hymns are a
fantastic outlet for doctrine to be recited and proclaimed, like declaring
the holiness of God or recognizing God as trinitarian...These truths
about God are immutable, revealed through the story God unfolds in
the Bible, and they can and should be passed down from generation
to generation.
Tad Daniels, The Worship Initiative
Really all the songs we sing regardless of style should abide by that standard- they declare the truths of God.
So as we look at the hymns we should be able to go then to the scripture to verify or confirm the truth that are proclaimed there in
“These can and should be passed down from generation to generation”-
None of these hymns were written in the last 100 years- they are all 100+ years old.
There is something to be said for that. It has yet to be seen if we will be singing the same “contemporary” worship songs 100 years from now, in the same exact way as we do now. My guess is probably not, by definition they will continue to change as styles and preferences changes
So, for generations believers, christ followers have been singing these same songs. There is something to be said for that. Now I recognize that we don’t sings hymns here nearly as often as we have in the past- and I am not suggesting that that is right or wrong or that we are going to do anything different than we are now.
Except to acknowledge that this church has a long history allowing the tradition hymns to guide us in our worship through song.
Trace and I like to sing a few hymns before bed, right now its “Come We that Love the Lord”- “we’re marching unto zion beautiful beautiful zion”
One day I heard him singing that line softly to him self as we were doing something, and I hadn’t taught it to him, I think we had just song it here recently, but he picked up on it.
Song #1- Just As I AM
Song #1- Just As I AM
We are going to begin with a him that I think is fairly familiar.
Just As I Am
Charlotte Elliot
Charlotte Elliot was an 18th century poet and Victorian hymn writer, and the granddaughter of a famous English preacher.
She was always a writer from as far back as she can remember. In her youth, she became a well-known humorous poet and was critically acclaimed for her writing and poetry.
At the age of 32, Charlotte became gravely ill and was presumed near death. She recovered, but that illness left her paralyzed and she would never walk again.
She had developed a friendship with the famous Swiss hymnologist César Malan, there is a story of one evening while at dinner with her family that Charlotte lost it and began to rail against God, for letting this happen to her,
Malan was there at the diner and after this episode the rest of her family left the room and it was only Malan and Charlotte in the room- Malan suggested that it was the faith that Charlotte was resisting that was in fact the cure for the bitterness, anger and resentment she was holding on to.
Malan shared the gospel with Charlotte and encouraged her to yield her life to Christ and to use her literary talents for the glory of God.
Charlotte asked Malan “if I wanted to give my life to God and share the peace and joy that you possess what would I do.”
Malan’s response- “You would give yourself to God just as you are now.”
One evening in 1834, after moving to Brighton to live with her brother who would help care for her, she was left alone for many hours, helpless and lonely. Feelings of uselessness were overwhelming in her heart and mind. She was confined by her sickness, and in those quiet moments of isolation, God brought the words of César Malan to mind that he had shared with her years before: “Charlotte, come to Christ just as you are.” Those words brought great comfort and joy, knowing that Christ was not waiting for her to prove her worth and value — He was all the worth and value she would ever need, and the invitation was to simply come.
From that moment of conversion to the end of her life, Charlotte Elliot committed herself to writing hymns for the Church to sing.
All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
How is it that we come?
How is it that we come?
Charolette’s story reminded me of a story that we find recorded in Johns gospel
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
Jesus asks this man a question- do you want to get well.
The mans answer to me indicates a desire to be well but he thinks that in order to get well there is something that he needs to do- get himself in the pool when the water is stirred up- but because he is paralyzed it is impossible for him to do that- he is incapable of doing for himself that which could heal him
Jesus responds by asking him to do the impossible-”pick up your mat and walk.” and he does
Go to John 6:61-65
Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
This is us in a spiritual sense apart from God, we are the paralyzed man lying beside the pool, with no ability to for ourselves that which would be required to experience healing
Paul says it this way in Ephesians 2:1
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
Before Christ we are dead, we are spiritually paralyzed with no ability to do anything on our own to change the state that we are in
So Jesus says John 6:37-40
All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
So, do you want to be well? Come to Jesus…but we are incapable of coming-we are paralyzed, so what do we do
Like in Luke 5 maybe you are blessed with good friends who will carry you and rip the roof off the house if necessary to get you to the feet of Jesus
I think this could be similar to the role the Cesar Malan played in Charlotte Elliot's life- his words, guidance, counsel helped carry Charlotte to the feet of Jesus
Or, like in this story of the paralyzed man Jesus comes to you
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
He knew that we were incapable of getting to him, so He came to us.
Respond to His voice
Respond to His voice
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
A response is required.
We talked about this before when we walked through the I AM statements- how is it that you know you’re a sheep- recognize and respond to the voice of the shepherd
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
Jesus also says John 10:16
I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
You may be hearing the voice of the shepherd for the first time this morning, maybe its pretty faint, you might be hearing it for the 100th time and it seems a little louder a little closer- He is coming for you
I get this visual from my growing up years on the farm when I’d go out in the morning to bring the cows in for milking time, as I’d walk out the field lane at a certain point you’d start hollering “come on” “come on” and you’d see the cows start to get up from all over the pasture and start moving toward the gate. And you’d have some out there that were just stubborn that you might have to go get and prod along, but the cows responded to the sound of my voice, when called them came and they followed.
That’s the visual I have to our good shepherd walking through the meadow calling out to his sheep “come on” and as he get closer the voice get louder and more distinct,
If you are one of his sheep you will respond, you will follow, if you choose not to respond or don’t hear his call then you’re not a sheep
See when the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd they don’t just continue to lay there and make excuses, I have been laying here for 38 years I can’t get up
Jesus says pick up your mat and walk and you know what the man does, he picks up his mat and walks, we aren’t told that he questioned Jesus any further, we aren’t told that Jesus needed to tell him again, he responded
Walk Differently
Walk Differently
I need to note John 5:14
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
Jesus didn’t heal this man so that he could go back to doing whatever it was he did before, he called him to walk differently
Charlotte Elliot spent the last 50 years of her life as an invalid, he didn’t heal her physically but her gave her life purpose and he repurposed her gifts of writing and poetry for the glorification of his name. She lived to be 82 and wrote about 150 hymns
The Invitation:
The Invitation:
Dr. Billy Graham wrote that the Graham team used this hymn in almost every one of their crusades. He said it presented "the strongest possible Biblical basis for the call of Christ."
That is what we are going to do here this morning as the worship team leads us
Maybe you are here and you have never responded to the voice of the shepherd, I invite you to do so, the promise is this John 5:24
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
Maybe you are here this morning and you have just kind of wandered off front the pasture, the shepherd’s voice is calling to you as we’ll “come”
Wherever you are the invitation is come: Matthew 11:28
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
In the words of Cesar Malan- “you come to him just as you are”
The reality he is the one that has closed all the distance, he has come all the way
