Distanced But not Forgotten
Praise the Lord everyone, Why don’t we lift up our hands and begin to worship the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. Oh God we magnify your name, we worship you oh God. Thank you for everything that we have felt so far in this place. In Jesus Name.
Amen, how many can feel the presence of God in this place. As we move quickly let me just say what an honor it is to be able to speak to you tonight. I want to give honor to Pastor, thank you for seeing something in me and investing your time to help me grow in my calling. Thank you my parents. Thank you to my wonderful wife, how gets to hear all my sermons before y'all do. She’ll be sure to tell me if it is good or not.
Thank you to the church for all of your support and everything you have done for me. I am forever grateful for you.
If you have your bibles we are going to be turning to Luke the 17th chapter reading verses 11-14. This is vey well known portion of scripture. Jesus had been traveling and he came across 10 lepers. Starting in verse 11.
Luke 17:11-14
11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.
Tonight with the Help of the Lord I want to bring you a word that he has given. Distanced but not forgotten.
If we can put our bibles down and go to the Lord in prayer. Thank you Jesus for this wonderful opportunity we have to hear from you tonight. God I pray that you will begin to move in this place. God touch my lips, you me as a vessel for you. Let your word be spoken through me. God I pray that you will allow people to begin to open up there hearts to you and receive what you have to say. We give you all the praise, honor and glory in Jesus Name we pray Amen. Let’s give him one more handclap of praise.
Distanced but Not Forgotten
After the end of World War 2, the two world leading super powers would begin a race. That race would be known as the Space Race. With Russia leading the way against the United States. They would launch mission after mission. And after each successful mission it seemed as if America was falling further and further behind. During the 60s The Race to the moon was the topic of that time. And on September 12, 1962 JFK would give his famous speech and quote “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Only 7 years later on July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins would make the journey in the Apollo 11 Space craft and land on the moon. Stepping off of the space craft while the world watched Neil Armstrong stated “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
And While the earth is 238,900 miles, and about 3 days journey away from the moon. The men from Apollo 11 while they were distanced, they were not forgotten.
I’ve come to tell someone in this place tonight, It may feel that you are distanced from God, But as Romans 8:38-39 says
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Come on somebody, there is no distance that is too far for God to go. There is no mountain that he wont climb to find you.
In the passage we read that 10 lepers came to Jesus. The bible tells us that when they came they stood at a distance. Tradition had told them they they could not come close.
Lepers in the bible were considered to be unclean. Society recognized them as outcasts. They could not live in the city or town. But they had to distance themselves from everyone. Often living in caves or tents outside the city, the mere touch would bring uncleaness. breathing the same air as someone with this disease was considered dangerous and deadly. In Ancient Israel, they were required to wear special clothes, wear special bells, keep their distance from everyone in society and had to cry “unclean, unclean” if someone was too close.
Their life merely consisted of being quarantined and distanced from society. This sounds very familiar to us today.
And while society would probably tell the 10 lepers that there was nothing that could have been done. You cant be healed. You have to keep your distance so that you don’t infect anyone else. When they cried out to Jesus Christ he heard their petition and he reached out to them and healed them.
I wonder if anyone in the place tonight, society keeps telling you that you are too far from God. You don’t have what it takes, you don’t have the skills and qualifications, you’re not called. They want to tell you that you are distanced from the church. But all you have to do is begin to call out to Jesus Christ and he will find you.
In Luke 5 you find the story of the paralyzed man.
18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.
20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”
The men wanted their friend to be healed. But they were distanced from Jesus. Many would have called it a day. Maybe the next time Jesus is in town we will try again then. No they made there way through and found Jesus. Sometimes when we feel distanced we have to continue to push our way through, we have to keep fighting and keep going until we find our healing.
But we have to be careful. While we are not forgotten by God, when we wander we FORGET about God.
I know that we are fighting a virus right not, but I fear the day that as the church we become too fearful to keep fighting. I fear the day we become so distanced from the house of God that we cannot reach our world. Satan wants to use the fear of a virus to destroy the church. I know that Covid is real and I know that people are dying from, but each day there are people in our city who have not heard the truth, they are distanced from Jesus Christ and they cannot find him. And each day there are those who are dying and don’t have the chance to make it into Heaven.
Come on Church we cannot allow ourselves to become distanced and forget the world that is relying
In Matthew 19 Jesus had made his way to Judea. And in verse 13
13 Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.
Even his disciples were telling the children to go away. They wanted to keep the children distanced from Jesus.
Society was telling them to distance themselves. Young person of God, I wanna talk to you for a moment. The world wants you to distance yourself from this word. They want to entice you with the things of this world. They want it to look glamours and fun. They know that you are the next generation. And satan knows that if he can distance you then he can stop the church. But I want to tell you tonight that you need to commit yourself to Jesus. You need to know as 1 Peter 2:9 says
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
You have been chosen by God. You are the next generation who will carry the legacy of the men and women that made way for us to be where we are today. You need to commit yourselves. You can’t allow the world to convince you that you are not good enough, you can’t allow them to tell you that there is nothing to fight for. When you feel distanced from God and when you’re going through trails and struggles in your life, just know that there is a God in heaven who hears you, he knows everything that you are going through, and he is waiting for you to cry out.
I wonder if we can begin to cry out to God in this place tonight.
If we can all stand in this place tonight.
Matthew 18:12-14
12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.