How Far Are You Willing To Go?

RECORD

I spent a lot of time thinking about what would be my first sermon after returning from sabbatical

I considered many different options but there was one thing that I just couldn’t get out of my mind, a burden that has been on my heart for the past few years, the kids and grand-kids who have heard and know the gospel, and maybe even responded to it but have walked away from this faith for whatever reason

I have made it a habit ever since we first arrived in Frankford to pray my way through the church directory a little bit every day

At first it helped me learn some of the names, but as time went on and I began to meet some of the extended families and I began to hear the stories of those kids who once called FGt their home church but now …well my heart began to break

Some of you have shared heart wrenching stories with me, stories that no one else even knows

Stories of hurt and pain and still a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the lessons of their youth

And so I began to add these kids to my prayers and the more I prayed for them the more my heart broke for them

Of course I don’t always get the names right and sometimes I can’t remember the names at all, but it’s okay because I know that God knows and that He understands

And so this morning for my first message back I want to ask a couple of questions,1. What’s it going to take for us to see these kids and grand-kids put their hope in God? 2. To what extremes are you willing to go to see that happen?

So open up your Bible to the 4th chapter of John’s gospel and beginning at verse 46 as we look at the story of another parent who was concerned for their child

John 4:46–54 NIV

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

I want to draw out of this passage a few important principles that I believe we can apply to our own children that need a touch from Jesus

The first thing I want to point out is that this man was Desparate

Being an official of the king’s court meant that this man had access to the best medical professionals and the means to pay for it and yet even with all that money power and influence, still his child laid there dying and there was nothing that he could do to help him

He had tried it all, and still his son was going to die

This man was desperate

According to dictionary.com the word desperate means having a sense of urgency because of despair

I wonder, are we still desperate for our unsaved loved ones or has the enemy lulled us into a false sense of security

I am about to say what might amount to the most unpopular thing I have ever said from this pulpit, do you realize that, apart from Jesus Christ, those whom you love the most are going to die, not just once but what Jesus refers to as the second death in

‘Pastor you take that back right now. I don’t like that and I don’t want to hear it’

I know, and I don’t like it either but if we are going to see them saved then we first need to be able to acknowledge that they need saving

Revelation 21:

Revelation 21:8 NIV

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Do we really and truly believe that because if we do we can try every other remedy known to man and find that our kids are still in the same predicament, they are still going to die without Jesus Christ

Our second point is found in verse 47, “When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Him”