 |
Do
I Matter? 24 October 1999 CAPTAIN ALISTAIR VENTER Reading: Psalm 8
INTRODUCTION: I don’t know how many of you heard the announcement two weeks ago on the radio that the United Nations have announced that the population of the world has clocked the 6 billion mark. One little baby boy born to a refugee family in Sarajevo, was symbolically declared to be the 6 billionth baby to be born. Of course, there were tens of thousands of babies born on the day of the six billionth. One third of those babies will not live beyond the age of 5. It almost seems as if people don’t matter, that the lives of people are not really important. We are living in times right now where people from all walks of life are saying that they don’t matter. Life is not worth living. Suicide is rife, depression is high on the emotional level of people – and the message comes across loud and clear – I don’t matter. I am not important to anyone. I don’t count. The thought that there are something like 6 billion other people on this earth – so insignificant, so small – do I really matter? If you think that there are a lot of people in the world, you had better sit up and listen to what the scientists are saying. Scientists say that our sun is one of about 500 billion stars in the milky way, which is a medium sized galaxy among 200 billion others, all swarming with stars. The psalmist in Psalm 8 – even although he did not have all this scientific knowledge, was mesmerized by what he saw. He said "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" Eugene Peterson in the Message says: "I look up at your macro skies, dark and enormous, your handsome sky jewelry, moon and stars mounted in their settings. The I look at my micro self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?" DO I MATTER? There are two ways of looking at that!
My father was one who never missed a days work. Even if he was feeling really sick, he would go into work – always saying that he had to be there. Someone once said to him: "If you die tomorrow, someone will take your place in no time!" That kind of happened – my father died, and the next day they came to fetch the car, he was replaced, and we never heard any more. But life is like that. People can make such a major contribution, be faithful in their commitment to their work – but they are so easily replaced. You and I might never be world history makers. I think if we had to think of people who have been instrumental in molding the pattern of this world and our lifestyle, we would think of people like Martin Luther, Hitler, William Booth, Vasco da Gama, Florence Nightinggale, the Wright brothers, maybe even Nelson Mandela. They have made contributions to the world which have resulted in sweeping changes. They really mattered to the world. They made a difference. In many ways, whether or not we matter to the world, what we accomplish, is up to us. On a certain beach on one occasion there had been a freak tide that had washed up hundred of thousands of star fish. This star fish lay strewn all over the sand, and the sun started to make its appearance for yet another scorcher of a day. A little boy was seen walking along the shore line, and as he walked, he picked up one star fish after the other, and threw them into the water. Someone came up to the little boy and said; "You are wasting your time. With you throwing these star fish back into the water one by one, you don’t even make an impact – you make no difference. Oh yes I do, said the little boy as he stooped down to pick up yet another and another and another. As he threw each star fish back into the water, he was heard to say. It makes a difference to that one. It makes a difference to that one. What that little boy was doing was making a difference, even although it seemed to be so insignificant. I want to tell you in the words of Jesus that "whatever you do for one of the least of God’s children, you are doing it for Him" – and you are making a difference. You do matter. But our next question is: The answer to this question is not up to me! I am one of 6 billion people populating this earth. Do I matter to God? The answer is definitely YES! Can I say that with assurance tonight – do you matter to God? Do I matter to God? Again, the answer is YES! I want to give you some examples tonight of people who thought that they did not matter, but Jesus went out of his way to show them that they did matter. A. THE SHY AND SHAMEFUL WOMAN: You will recall in Matthew 9 a woman coming up behind Jesus unobtrusively seeking for help. She had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had seen every doctor that there was to see, She had tried every remedy that was suggested to her – but nothing helped. She probably had the thought in her mind that she mattered to no one. No one seemed to be able to help her, no one seems to care. She thought that if she just could touch Jesus cloak, that maybe she might be healed. She did not want to draw any attention to herself – she probably believed that she did not matter to Jesus or anyone else in that crowd. She went and she touched the hem of Jesus garment – and she was healed. I can imagine the weight rolling off her shoulders as she realised that after so many years that she was now healed. She would have wanted just to slip away into the crowds…. But she mattered to Jesus. Jesus, although he was on his way to do much more important business – restoring someone to life who had died – found time to let this woman know that she mattered to Him. B. THE MAN WITH LEPROSY: In Luke 5 we read of a man who was covered with leprosy. Leprosy was one of those diseases that had a terrible stigma about it. In fact, in the book of Leviticus, chapters 13 and 14, all the regulations concerning leprosy are found. The leper was to cry "Unclean, Unclean!" wherever he went. He was to dwell alone ina place outside of the city. He was banished from having any contact with people, and he was not allowed to have any contact with his home and family. The result was that the psychological consequences of leprosy were as bad as the physical. Dr A B MacDonald , who spent some time in a leper colony, wrote the following article. He said; "The leper is sick in mind as well as body. For some reason there is an attitude to leprosy different from tha attitude to any other disfiguring disease. It is associated with shame and horror, and carries, in some mysterious way, a sense of guilt, although innocently acquired like most contagious troubles. Shunned and despised, frequently do lepers consider taking their own lives, and some do." The leper was hated by others until he came to hate himself. He would have been one of those who would have said: "I don’t matter to anyone. I don’t matter to God!" But if we read that story, we find that when the leper fell to his feet and said to Jesus; "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean" – he was met with a remarkable reaction. Not only did Jesus talk to him and say I am willing, Jesus actually touched him. He reached out his hand and actually touched him – the untouchable. He was healed! The man who hated himself, who for years probably had not had contact with any healthy person, who was filled with so much pain – he mattered to Jesus. What about: C. THE MAN AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA: Jesus was again going to another important function in Jerusalem. It was a Jewish festival – which he had to attend. But Jesus happened to go to the pool of Bethesda. I believe that he went there for a purpose. Bethesda means a house of mercy – and Jesus knew that there was one man who had not yet received that mercy for which he longed. This man lay at the side of the pool waiting for the angels to stir the water. It was believed that if a person got into the water when the waters were bubbling, they would be healed. But this man had been lying there fir years. He was been an invalid for 38 years – and judging by what he told Jesus, he did not have any friends at all. He mattered to no one – it appears. He said to Jesus that he had no one to help him get into the water when it was stirred. One gets the impression that this guy had given up completely. He was at a place where there was a possibility of healing, but it seemed beyond his reach. He was totally despondent. Amongst the hundreds of sick people lying around that pool, Jesus chose this man to speak to. He asked if he wanted to be healed. At a word, this man was able to stand to his feet for the first time in 38 years, and he was completely healed. You see, he mattered to Jesus. He mattered to God. It was Augustine who once said; "God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love". Do you understand it? Of course we don’t! We don’t understand how brown cows can eat green grass and produce white milk, but we still pour it on our cereal. We do not understand a mothers love or a fathers patience, but we count of them and cherish them. We do not understand how pain can make us grow, but we know that it does. To understand that we matter to God when there are 6 billion other people on the planet, and there are 500 billion stars in our milky way which he controls – it is mind boggling. We are told that God knows the number of hairs that we have on our head. Let me tell you that that varies from day to day! He tells us through a parable that we are so important to him that it is like a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in the fold to go and look for one – that one being you or me. Do I matter to God? One out of 6 billion? Of course we do, and we need to be made aware of that. We must not be proud, but humbled that he is willing to consider us. We must be humbled that we matter to God! CONCLUSION: The story is told of a certain person by the name of Victor. Victor acted a little differently from the other students in his class, because he was always bored. One of his teachers nicknamed him "Dummy" and he was placed in a special class for slow learners. This gave Victor such a bad impression of himself that at the age of 16 he dropped out of school. What else could a Dummy do? Victor drifted from job to job because he knew that he could not really amount to much. But when Victor was 32 years old, he applied for a job that demanded that all applicants take an IQ test. Needless to say, Victor the Dummy was petrified. He took the test, and he scored 162 – he was a genius. Immediately people began to say; "Victor, you are brilliant!" And Victor the dummy came to believe it. Victor became a very successful businessman and the president of Mensa, the club for people of particularly high intelligence. When he realised that he did matter – there was massive change in this man’s life. YOU MATTER TO GOD. God made you inferior only to Himself. He sent His Son, Jesus, because you mattered so much to Him. This fact should change your life and mine as we try to measure up to His assessment of us. Because I am convinced that I DO matter to God, I WILL matter to the world! "God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love!"
RESPONSIVE READING DO I MATTER?
AMEN. |