Pastor Ralph Douglas West - Willing And Able: The Touch That Changed Everything

0:10 Come on, bless the wonderful name of Jesus Christ today. What a joy. Thank you, choir. Thank you for our praise dancers and our young people and our music, the sounds of liberation. on the day. What a joy for that. To all of our women who celebrated Mosaic on yesterday, and our men, our momentum men, on yesterday. What a joy. Delighted to see Dr. Rick Rigsby, our special guest who was with us on yesterday here in our worship this morning. What a joy. He blessed us on yesterday.

1:04 And I'm glad for us to be here on this morning. Amen. It's good to be here. It's good to be alive. It's good to be anywhere. And yeah, okay. Sister West put the pressure on us brothers yesterday. So we know what we need to do. We got a year to catch up with them. We got a year to catch up with them. The Franklins have read in our hearing this morning Job's question of cleansing and Jesus responds in the New Testament to the Old Testament question Those texts tied together reminds us thematically.

2:08 that when we are unable to make a difference in life and life's circumstances. God himself in Jesus Christ is not only willing to make a difference, but he's also able. Let me hang a tag on these texts, willing and able. You may be seated. We all know something about human ingenuity.

2:58 We've all benefited from it in one way or another. We've all profited from technology, from medicine, literature, even barriers that have been broken. These results are the efforts of people who put their ability in their willingness to the front. That's a big concept, so let me reach up, grab an idea and pull it down and put it on center stage.

3:44 For those of you who are new in this congregation, that is over the last 20 plus years, may not know that I'm supposed to be, at this point, retired. Thank you. My goal was to enter the senior tour for golfers. and the people in this church know I've worked and worked to reach that goal I was willing I've attended multiple professional golf schools, taken lessons, moved on the only Jack Nicklaus signature course in Texas in preparation for my early retirement to enter the senior PGA.

5:03 I was willing. But my talents were not able. Today when you read our twin texts, they say something about the human effort. our wants and our endeavors. Our readings begin with Job that tells us something about willingness, ability, unwillingness, inability.

5:51 That there were some who were willing but not able, others who may have been able but unwilling. We encounter this on every level. Shirley Chisholm was willing to serve as the first black US Congresswoman. She was willing. She was willing to run as the first black democratic nominee for the presidency, but America was unable. In literature, Gwendolyn Brooks was willing to use her ability as a writer to reflect the political and social landscape of the 1960s.

6:52 She would be the first black woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize. She used her abilities, she was willing. Not just first black woman, but the first black to receive it in 1950. But America wasn't able. We see ability and willingness in art. Garden Parks, the photographer, who captured the world between his lens. Most of us know him of his second blockbuster movie. Shaft, who assisted in the shaping of the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Shaft, you're a bad mother, shut your mouth.

7:48 Listen to what Park said about ability and willingness in an interview with Life magazine. I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.

8:25 I pulled out my camera this morning to zoom the lens in on two scenes, one in the Old Testament and the other in the New to help us to understand something about human endeavor, divine intervention and the practical ways that we can use what God has given to us and prove the quality not just of our life but the life of other people. Let me begin now with Job, not Job, although he had one. his life might be framed this way not the only way but his life begins with a description in chapter one of his prosperity Job's character.

9:22 On the front page of his writing, it reads that he was perfect and upright. Not without flaw. He possessed apparently a quality of maturity that was admirable. Maybe in a sense that he worshiped and loved God in such a way that the writer had to dictate perfect and upright.

9:54 His family, he had a large family. Job is written in the patriarchal age, one of the distinguishing qualities of patriarchy of that day was a large family meant that you were a person of prosperity. and then his friends who would travel a long distance to come and sit around him silently to muse at him for seven days while he's in an ash heap. Their mistake is when they open their mouth. They did what so many people do. They tried to explain Job's situation and tried to tell him how to change what they weren't going through.

10:53 Henry Ford says it best, my best friend is the one who brings the best out of me. Job's prosperity, Job's adversary, adversary adversary, sound like I've been drinking Thank you so much. That's all right. Thank you. I appreciate that. Bring me a shot now. I'm just messing with you. This is when you say, let's get it back on track. His adversary Job knew what had happened But he didn't know why It had happened And that becomes the crux of Job It becomes our moral dilemma I know why or whether I know I'm sick I eat right I count my calories I exercise I drink a gallon of water a day.

12:28 I got 10,000 steps a day I wear a watch to prove it. My diagnosis was unfavorable. I know what happened, I just don't know why. In the story Now God finds no fault in Job But Satan did But Satan's accusation against Job Is really an affront to God Might be one of the things that you and I can remember Is when we come under spiritual attack That it's less about you and more about God Thank you. That the enemy attacks you to discredit the mercy and the grace of God. and then Job's fidelity when he goes through this horrible experience of loss of children loss of property loss of health when he's accused and he stared at the way people look at you when you have given your life to God and Christ and the church and you've done all of the practical disciplines that are employed by the church and there your life never seems to get better and behind your back people whisper that's why I don't go to church that's why I don't trust God or better they say behind your back I told you they had something going on in their life because God would never let that happen to them if they were as religious as they say they are.

14:19 And then look at Job's fidelity and I move on, that's his story. Job looks back at his birth, naked I came into the world. He looks ahead at his death Naked I came to the world Naked shall I return But he looks up and makes a magnificent statement of the faith He says, naked I came here Naked I'm leaving Though you slay me Yet I'm going to trust in you Thank you. It took me that long to get to chapter 14. Because those of you that don't know the story, that's it.

15:16 When you get to chapter 14, the friends have sat around Job seven days in silence and then when they speak, they simply utter words that are accusatory. Thank you. These are his friends These are not strangers These are people that know him I see some of you fingering through the Bible And going I like that You're not looking out of real interest You want to prove that I'm making this up Because you can't believe that the Bible Would have a story like Job in it and yet it is there to remind us that all of your moral good, all of your spiritual maturity is not a badge to prevent trouble from coming into your life.

16:20 Chapter 14 This is what Job said to his friends Man born of a woman Is full of trouble Every day, that's King James.

16:43 And then he gives a list in verses 1 through 12. I only mention a few and why chapter 14 is so important because it's a chapter you can write above it, hopelessness. he's describing what happens in life when people look through the wrong lens he looks through this and reminds us and points out to us that life when it's viewed as hopelessness can be defined. Look at these images in these verses. You're like a flower that's cut down too soon. You're like a shadow that slowly disappears.

17:39 You're like a hired man or woman who gets dressed every morning and go to work and put in that time. Never get paid what you really are worth and then you're replaced. Then this is what Job ends up in those 12 verses by simply says, and God knows the limits of our days. I don't make light of this comment That there are those who try to exit life Early by taking life by their own hands But even when we think that we are Exiting life, escaping pain Running away You can never outrun the purposes of God For your life Even when you try to end it soon on your turn preach pastor west so what does job teach us in chapter 14 that all of us in need run to human help.

18:52 We look for mundane solutions to fix problems that's beyond its ability to handle. Job reminds us That there are some things That's bigger than your intellect Preach, Pastor Wreck Outweighs your bank account When you go to Paris, you're going to stop at the Louvre. You don't have to worry about that. And in the Louvre, you're gonna get in a traffic jam

19:40 of human beings in one gallery, and they are there to look at one little picture. The Mona Lisa. The lady with the silly smile And I stood in that line, I've been there. I was right there, I wanted to look. There's a one time being six-five and have its great advantages where you can just peel over the head of people. When you exit and turn right, in the next gallery, there are Italian religious paintings. on the wall and almost nobody ever stopped it. So many people are involved in coming to see Mona Lisa. Once they see her, they just leave.

20:35 .. And they bypassed the painting. is the picture of Saint Job of the cross. Laying at the foot of the cross, looking up at the figure painted as Jesus.

21:25 And the image is pointing out that there comes a moment. Thank you. that you learn that you cannot depend upon any human health, but there comes a moment that you do what the psalmist says, and that is, I will look to the hills from which cometh my help, my help. comes from the Lord.

22:24 Job wanted to know one question. Who can make us clean? Who can fix my marriage? Who can help me rear my children? Who can bring my son that's involved in gang activities? My daughter that's dancing on a pole. What can bring my husband home? What can break an illicit relationship of my wife? Who can fix that? You can't fix it in your own, but there is somebody that is strong and powerful and right and righteous enough to, yeah, fix your situation. That's that story Let me answer it In the New Testament So you turn from the Old Testament And you turn now to the New Testament And in the New Testament In Matthew chapter 8 We pick up where Jesus is preaching The Sermon on the Mount Thank you.

23:41 and he ends the sermon with this story where he simply says now if you hear my word and put them into practice and you will be called wise if you hear my words but don't adhere to him listen to him to say well you you're foolish come here for a minute this may really help you understand god god loves you so much that he leaves it up to you to make the choice how you build your life but I know God's mad. No, you're not. He's not angry. God leaves it up to you how you build your life. You can build your life with any material you want to.

24:35 He says, if you're wise, you'll build your house on a foundation made of rock. If you are foolish You will build your life On a foundation of sand Pastor Wes, what's the big deal? Right, you're right, it's not a big deal Until the storm comes You can build your life any way you want to, but the one thing that you don't get to choose is how the weather is going to come. You can build your life, you can make fun of God, you don't have to take him serious, but when the weather shifts, I recommend, that's all I can do, that you make sure that you build your hope on things eternal and whole to God's unchanging hand.

25:42 Well, somebody listening to the sermon that they had leprosy. A condition that is incurable. There is no hope for the leper. Remember, the friends of Job did what? They were unwilling. They were unable. They were willing to do this, unable to do that. They were discouraging Here you have a leper Who is coming after he hears the message of Jesus And he shifts the focus From discouragement to encouragement And so he comes to Jesus A leper, let me get it again Can't be helped There's no cure for it No vaccine, you can't inoculate from it there's nothing that you can do.

26:41 You just contract it and you die from it. That's it. Gone. But the leper had heard. And you need to know this. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. Let me say it one more time. Pastor Wes, I ain't got faith. Hear the word. Well, I don't believe. Hear the word. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Faith comes by hearing God's word. Don't just wait on Sunday to hear me open up the Bible. Open the thing up sometime by yourself. Do the week and Sunday morning. You can bring some faith to church. the leper, here we go, sees Jesus and he kneels down.

27:38 It says he knelt down before him. He assumed the posture of humility. He that humbles himself, she that humbles herself shall be exalted. Humbled himself with leprosy. They