Dorothy Meyer
Notes
Transcript
Brothers and sisters in Christ, when I first came to Baldwin a little over a year ago and asked our Council to introduce me to our members in the Care Center, I was warned about Dorothy. I was warned, not of anything bad, but that when I visited her, I better have some time because she was a talker. That was true. It was easy to go and sit with her for 45 minutes to an hour and not run out of things to talk about. She had a knack for knowing what was going on in others’ lives, and she enjoyed sharing many of her experiences, whether that meant work or travel or Wisconsin Rapids or treasuring her grandkids and extended family. God had blessed her in many ways. At least as her pastor, she opened up quite easily about those blessings.
The greatest blessing she had, though, is that she was and is a child of God. Earlier in Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about that when he says, “…Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God…You received the Spirit of sonship.” None of this is to be restricted to males, like Dorothy, you can be a daughter of God, too. Because we are sons and daughters, “…by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…”
To be part of the family of God, to live life in union with him, to hold an inheritance of eternal life with God are the most precious gifts any of us can have. Those things ought to be the greatest pursuit of our lives and what we dedicate ourselves to and desire for others to know. We do that not out of selfish pride or to put others down, but we desire that they too may be drawn to the joy and hope which God alone offers in Christ.
So, this morning, we want to look briefly at three aspects of the blessing of being a child of God. First, how does one become a child of God? Deepening our assurance, it begins with God. We read in verse 33, “those whom God has chosen.” Paul expands on that in Ephesians 1, “For [God the Father] chose us in [Jesus] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins…”
As with most adoptions of children, it’s the adoptive parents who begin that process. God, in that Father role, chooses those who he will save. By his marvelous work, according to his time he will bring them, bring us into a saving knowledge of him. He’ll bring us to a point of accepting and experiencing his grace. For many who’ve grown up in the church, that begins at a young age, being nurtured in our homes and churches and classes. For others, conversion happens later in life.
But it’s not just a choice that happened before all time and so everything that follows is meaningless. No, becoming a child of God requires Jesus’ sacrifice, that is essential for the forgiveness of our sins. As wonderful a lady, a mother, a grandmother, a friend that Dorothy was, like all of us she was a sinner, too. She needed to be redeemed by God, to have her sins washed away. She lived with the belief and confidence that what Jesus won when he died on the cross and rose from the grave, that was hers. There is nothing else that could offer her hope in this life and the life to come. It is solely the love of God expressed in the mercy of Jesus.
You and I can receive that by believing, wholeheartedly trusting in God to forgive us and change our lives. Rather than simply thinking about ourselves, what would please us, what we think we’d enjoy, by faith, we sincerely turn our thoughts to God. More and more throughout our lives, we’re drawn to experiencing his love and seeking his glory. Faith, the relationship in which we accept that we are a child of God, impacts every part of us.
The second aspect of being a child of God that we consider is what ought to be our attitude in the midst of pain? As we think about the process of grief and mourning, even when someone has died at the end of a long life, it’s difficult. This woman you knew and loved and were provided for by will be missed. That pain for some of us is magnified with the restrictions coronavirus has put on so many parts of our lives. Before she passed, maybe you didn’t get to say the goodbye you thought you’d have time to say. Afterwards, even in this moment, maybe you’re missing not just her but certain people who you really wish were here to uplift you. Or maybe there are other things going on in your life right now that are multiplying pain—other crises or sicknesses or burdens.
Paul’s beautiful message in Romans 8 is not one that mocks our hurt. He doesn’t, and even greater, God doesn’t say, “suck it up and get over it.” No, he reminds us of the truth, the reality that ought not get lost in the midst of everything. That truth is that no one and no thing in all of creation—remember there is only One who is over creation, who is uncreated—so no person or circumstance can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
If you hold that truth, then who and what should you see as rising over you, as being too much for you? Nothing. If we have Christ, if we have the Spirit, yes, we’ll still hurt. We’ll still grieve. We’ll perhaps wish we didn’t have to lose people to death by any circumstances. But that hurt will have an end. We know that there is Someone who comforts and heals beyond our understanding. As children of God, we recognize, too, that there is something more to hope in.
That’s the third aspect of the blessing of being a child of God—what is your hope? It’s the message that goes along with the fourth step in the Gideons plan of salvation, what we find in Romans 10, “…If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame’…for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
God didn’t send Jesus into this world to make us feel better or just to take the place of a superhero. He gave him that all who call on the name of the Lord may be saved to eternal life. You and I cannot earn that on our own. We can’t do anything to deserve it. It is wholly what Jesus has done that affords you the gift of eternal life. The wonderful news is that once it has been given to you, it will not be taken away. During your life or after your life, if you have genuinely given yourself to Jesus, you have no need to worry about where you will spend eternity. You have no need to wonder—is his grace enough for you, does it cover enough of your sins. Our hope, brothers and sisters, is wrapped up wholly in perfect and complete salvation given by Christ alone.
I heeded the gentle warning to be prepared when I visited with Dorothy, and I will miss those times. But there is another warning today, a more serious one. That warning is to come humbly to and believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you have not done so. When each of us considers the end of our lives, which none of us knows exactly when that day will come or what will cause it—how gradual or sudden it may happen, what is your hope for the future? If you have not believed in Jesus, there is no comfort for the future, there is only pain and suffering in hell.
Yet Jesus told us, “‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away…’” All the comfort, all the assurances that Dorothy had, are available and can be held if we will believe in Jesus and commit our lives to him. Amen.