Throw Away People
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I got to take part in our youth ministry last week, … Jeremiah
In Roman times, parents were encouraged to throw away types of newborn children on piles of trash to die
In Roman times, parents were encouraged to throw away types of newborn children on piles of trash to die
Even the so-called refined and educated Cicero (106-43 BC) in his On the Laws 3.8 states: “Deformed infants shall be killed.” The “deformity” could be an unwanted child (Latin exposti—“left without shelter”), a sickly child, a deformed child or simply a wrong sex child. The Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) comments casually in On Anger 1.15: “…mad dogs we knock on the head…unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children at birth who are weakly and abnormal.”
In the Catacomb of Praetextatus there is a grave with the name “Stercorius” on it. Some are kind and translate the Latin name “abandoned in the garbage.” But the true translation of the name of this abandoned child, undoubtedly raised as a slave, is “little shit.” The catacomb names of Projectus and Projecticus in the catacomb of St. Callixtus convey that these children were abandoned on the dung hills and garbage heaps of Rome.
The catacombs are filled with very tiny graves with the epitaph “adopted daughter of…” or “adopted son of…” inscribed on them. These inscriptions refer to the many babies and young children Christians rescued from the trash over the centuries. Tertullian says Christians sought out the tiny bodies of newborn babies from the refuse and dung heaps and raised them as their own or tended to them before they died or gave them a decent burial.
It was a great insight as to immediately identify the hurting of these babies, and the differentness of what should be the follower of Christ.
Babies discarded because others didn’t like how they measured up.
Today we don’t throw people onto trash piles but we do trash people.
I was with the youth It’s not hard for a teenager to feel like they don’t measure up, like to some group they are cast aside. Left as no one or worse picked on as someone unusual.
I asked our kids to think of a person in their school who is discarded by others, treated as an outsider. It didn’t take long for them to pick someone.
People still feel discarded, like you don’t matter.
People still feel discarded, like you don’t matter.
The feelings of teenagers- always like I was the weird one
Others have shared they felt rejected for not having both parents always aware of the one who died or left them
Horrific stories of abuse and rape by family members being made to feel discarded as the only one who would keep you alive is yourself.
The hurt of being discarded isn’t down by levels, the pain is intense if its:
As a sub at Franklin High where no one would talk to me
Going to the party, hoping no one would talk to you but yet wanting everyone to enjoy you
Getting divorced and realizing that all the friends are going with the other spouse.
In this room there are people who feel discarded right now, by others in this room.
Jesus has something to say to you.
The Story of Zaccheus
10 The Son of Man came to look for and to save people who are lost.”
Jesus loves you and came to save you
Jesus loves you and came to save you
Because your here today I want you to hear, Jesus arranged so you could here that you matter.
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God choose you in the midst of this crazy world God chooses you.
Will you accept his choice?
If you do than say in your heart right now Lord I repent of my sins, I turn towards you, I will follow you, the one who choose me all of my dies, and I will begin by following you in Baptism
Right that down on your envelope right now
Turn that in, let others know, let me knwo
Most of you are followers of Jesus, Most of you have been baptized. What do you do with what I’m telling you.
Yet you need to be reminded
11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
1 John
Most people can feel discarded, but almost no one goes to get another from the trash heap
Most people can feel discarded, but almost no one goes to get another from the trash heap
The religious people of Jesus day where all about loving God and following God exactly to the best they could
So many others couldn’t measure up
Why do you go to sinners
10 While he was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came to eat with Jesus and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 Now when he heard this, he said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.
It isn’t the well who need a doctor,
Sinners are the same as they have always been. Sinners think of only themselves. Sinners may cuss, use drugs, cause problems, aren’t necessarily enjoyable, disagreeable, and yet Jesus hung out with them.
1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ 7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.
Those who attempted to do every religious rule correctly, deeply loved God, and they knew as you know that you are likely to do what others do. So they avoided sinners.
The cure to feeling discarded, is to go to the trash heap looking to love others
The cure to feeling discarded, is to go to the trash heap looking to love others
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Philipians 2:3-4
In the days and weeks to come people will put aside all others to “save themselves.”
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 5822 From Kimball to Graham
5822 From Kimball To Graham
A Sunday School teacher, a Mr. Kimball, in 1858 led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Christ. The clerk, Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist and in England in 1879 awakened evangelistic zeal in the heart of Frederick B. Meyer, pastor of a small church.
F. B. Meyer, preaching on an American college campus, brought to Christ a student named J. Wilbur Chapman. Chapman, engaged in YMCA work, employed a former baseball player Billy Sunday, to do evangelistic work.
Sunday held a revival in Charlotte, North Carolina. A group of local men were so enthusiastic afterward that they planned another campaign, bringing Mordecai Hamm to town to preach.
In the revival, a young man named Billy Graham heard the gospel and yielded his life to Christ.
Billy Graham … (The story goes on and on).
Evangelist Billy Graham and his associates preached to 53,561, 970 people at crusades and rallies from 1947 to 1977, according to records available from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association staff.
Billy Graham Sunday School Teacher
There were 1,626, 886 inquirers who recorded decisions at the crusades and rallies during the same period.
The total does not reflect the thousands of decisions made by persons hearing and seeing Graham on radio and television. They also do not include single meetings Mr. Graham addressed during the two years of his crusades in 1947–1949.
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 5865 Billy Graham’s Total Attendance
Evangelist Billy Graham and his associates preached to 53,561, 970 people at crusades and rallies from 1947 to 1977, according to records available from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association staff.
There were 1,626, 886 inquirers who recorded decisions at the crusades and rallies during the same period.
The total does not reflect the thousands of decisions made by persons hearing and seeing Graham on radio and television. They also do not include single meetings Mr. Graham addressed during the two years of his crusades in 1947–1949.
Tan, Paul Lee. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996. Print.
Heaven will be a place where love is others focused
In the Bible it looked like
The followers of Jesus showed us to give to acknowledge the beggar,Silver of Gold I do not have but what I have a I give to you, even the woman at the well being acknowledged, Zaccheus in the tree
Here it means going back to the trash heap
an adopted child picked up, couldn’t be handled a blanket and walked away they had to be welcomed in. As you can welcome those from the trash heap into your friendship
an adopted trash heap child would need to be loved for at least a lifetime, with a lot of effort
trash head children still died, and that had to hurt, and christians kept going back to the trash heap, love people knowing it hurts
I challenged the student to go to those who they recognized as others discarding them, and acknowledge them.
It will cost you, people might put you with them. I have had to defend loving those who I could barely stand loving myself
It will cost you, these people are discarded for a reason
It will shape you, as you begin to love the discarded you will recognize that you are no better, but you are valued but not because of what you
Who will you go to the trash heap for and love as Jesus loves you?
Who will you go to the trash heap for and love as Jesus loves you?