Overlooked?

Zephyr United Methodist Church

Early First United Methodist Church

July 10, 2005

Rev. Eddie Smart

Philip. 2:1-5 (NIV)

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt overlooked? Have you ever felt like you were overlooked? I felt that way this week, and it didn’t feel good. But before I get to that, this message is for a very special group of people. Paul writes to a very special group–he says, “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ...” Have you experienced any encouragement from being united with Christ? If you have these words are for you. “If any comfort from his love.” Have you felt comfort as a result from the love of Jesus Christ? If you have this message is for you. “If any fellowship with the Spirit...” If you have known fellowship with the Holy Spirit these words are for you. “If any tenderness and compassion...” Then these words are for you.

Then Paul goes on to say something about making his joy complete. The thing you have to keep in mind when you hear these words, Paul talking about his joy and how his joy is complete, you have to remember that Paul was in prison. Now there is debate about which prison, what town he is in, but there is no debate about Paul being in prison. He is writing about making his joy complete. What made his joy complete? Encouragement. He says to the people in Philippi, “If you have been encouraged by being in a relationship with Christ then my joy is complete when you have a mind like the mind of Christ–when you think like Jesus thinks. Then he goes on to say, “If you have experienced the comfort of his love, then my joy is complete when you love in exactly that same way. Jesus has said to us, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Then Paul says, “If you have fellowship with the Spirit, then my joy is complete when you are one in spirit and purpose.”

And in a sense all those can be summed up in that idea of tenderness and compassion. The New Revised Standard version says sympathy and compassion. Compassion and tenderness they sort of sum up the love and the mind and the purpose and the spirit of Jesus Christ that should be in us. If indeed we have known the love of Jesus Christ.

So how do we show tenderness and compassion? Paul goes on to show how we can show compassion as Jesus did. Paul says that each of you should look not only at your own interest, but also at the interests of others. In other words, do not overlook the interests of others. He says do not be selfish, but be humble. You know it’s easy, it is so easy to overlook the interests of others.

Saturday night Stephanie and Michael were married, and it was a wonderful celebration. On Sunday they got on an airplane and headed off for their honeymoon. Monday, Diana and I celebrated with Tonya and Will and our grandchildren in Burleson the fourth of July. On Tuesday we returned home and on that night United Methodist Women met. They had a marvelous meeting. I found it interesting that one of the things they talked about was Cuba. Interesting in the light of the hurricane going through Cuba this week. Then on Wednesday evening it became evident that what had been tropical storm Dennis had become a hurricane, and the projected path of that hurricane would take it right down the center of the island of Jamaica. That was the center of that projected path. Guess where Stephanie and Michael were honeymooning. They were on the western end of Jamaica. At least they were on the far end.

But I was watching television wanting desperately to hear some sort of reports about what that hurricane was doing. And what they were expecting and were they were expecting it to go and when they expected it to be there. They were scheduled to fly out on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. First reports said their flight would be delayed by one hour. By the next morning, their flight was canceled.

I get up the next morning and I want to hear reports about a hurricane that is coming into Jamaica, and all I could find was about bombings that took place in London on every channel I turned to. It’s not that that was not important. But my frustration was that we Americans, we citizens of the United States, were interested in one thing and one thing only related to hurricane Dennis. We wanted to know where it was headed and how fast it was going because that would determine the shape of that cone that would tell us where it was going to hit the United States of America.

I couldn’t find anything. I was on the internet. I was looking everywhere trying to find out information about that hurricane that was hitting Haiti and ultimately would hit Cuba. But the only real interest was what is the projected path for hitting the United States.

Jamaica was basically overlooked, and this Daddy was not happy. He couldn’t find out something about his little girl who was on that island. And I felt overlooked.

Guess what. Yesterday I turned on the television and guess what I found on the weather channel, continuos coverage of hurricane Dennis. You turned on the TV today and you could find coverage of Dennis. You could learn things about hurricanes that you really didn’t want to know, because they were going to fill up the air time with information about hurricanes and about the one that is coming. That’s not to say that it is not going to be tragic. It’s really building up and there is the chance of really significant damage.

But it is real easy to be focused on things that are our interests, rather than someone else’s interest. So what are we doing related to the interests of others. United Methodist Women were talking about Cuba and what they can do and now there is more that can be done for Cuba than earlier in this week. And for the people of Haiti. You have in your bulletins an insert that talks about a health kit. United Methodist Women are going to be our spear-head for collecting these kits.

As United Methodists we have an organization called the United Methodist Committee on Relief. They are already packing up trucks to head for where ever that hurricane hits. They will pack up ships and send stuff to Haiti and Cuba. They are able to do that, pack-up now because they have the health kits already sitting on shelves. Very soon we will be getting requests for things like health kits and other things. Not necessarily because they will need them for this hurricane, but to resupply the shelves for the next disaster so they can again respond quickly.

Not only could we do health kits. We could assemble what they call a flood bucket. I hope that we will think in terms of how many health kits am I going to put together.

Vacation Bible School is something that we are doing. Are we doing it for our own children or are we doing it for our community? How hard have we reached out to bring in children outside of our church?

United Methodist Women talked about operation Christmas, the Samaritan’s Purse ministry shoe box Christmas we did last year. We are planning ahead this year. You will be receiving the instructions so that you can begin now putting stuff together. Can you imagine a child opening up a shoe box and being excited over a bar of soup? I just can’t imagine, but that is the way it is.

There are other things we could be doing. The Early church has a trailer for mission work that has set in the same spot for over a year. I don’t know how long it has set there before I got here. Set up to go out and help people who need help. Why has it set there? I’m still waiting for someone to step forward and say I’ll lead the way, and we’ll make it happen. There are opportunities in our own town to help others and to put their interests above our interests.

How many of you are familiar with Jesse Duplantis? That Cajan preacher! He is a character! He is interesting and he is an excellent communicator of the gospel. I happened to see him last night, and he said something I hope I never forget. He was talking to a church about their giving of their money. He said, “God is asking you to give something that is of value to you.” He went on to say that if it is not of value to you how can you expect it to be of value to God when you give it to God. You have to give something that is of value to you.

Remember the story of Cain and Abel and how they both brought their gifts. One was accepted and one wasn’t. Scripture never tells us why Cain’s gift was rejected and Abel’s accepted. Other places in scripture may help us a little bit with that. Jesse may not have been too far off with the idea that maybe Abel gave something that was of value to him, but Cain gave something that was not of value to him.

There is no mistaking when Jesus talks about sitting in the temple and watches that lady drop in those two copper coin, and says I want you to know that she has given more that anybody because she has given all she has. She gave what was valuable to her. The rich folks threw in that money that was not all that valuable to them. They had more where that came from.

Remember the story of the rich young ruler. “Lord what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said you have to follow all the commandments. He said I have done that. Jesus told him to go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor and come and follow me. Jesus knew what was of value to that young man, and he was not willing to give up that of value to him.

As we consider the interest of others, I hope and I pray that we think about those things that are of value to us. So that in our giving to them, we are generous and faithful people.

Several years ago, I was in Ecuador. I was at an oil company base camp in the Amazon jungle. They had a satellite antenna there. It was the largest I had ever seen. It was huge. Then I remembered that the satellites are in a geo-synchronous orbit. That means they are directly above the equator and we were at the equator. Why such a huge antenna? Then someone told me while the satellites are directly above us, they are not aimed straight down. They are aimed toward the United States. They only get the leftovers. They don’t get the direct signal. They only get the leftovers. They were overlooked.

My hope and my prayer is that you can be and I can be the kind of faithful servants of Jesus Christ that we’re willing to give far more than just the leftovers so that we may make a difference in the lives of others. Thirty-two people died in Haiti and Cuba. Some may die when the hurricane hits the United States. Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad–most of those islands where people go as tourist are glamorous sorts of places. That is until we get outside the resorts and those people are poor–poor beyond belief. What can we do as individuals and as the church so that our interest is the interest of others?