Just before John Gotti died in federal prison where he was serving a life without parole sentence for his mob crimes, he said that what he missed the most were conversations with common people.  What you and I think of as “common people” and what John Gotti thought of as “common” are probably very different things.  But, what he missed, he said, were the conversations that reminded him of what life outside of the prison where he would spend the rest of his life had been like.  I can only imagine how disoriented life must become in prison when you are completely disconnected from the common every day things that help you keep your bearings on reality.  Maybe that’s why John the Baptist asked this rather bizarre question. 

John was on Herod’s death row.  Though the Bible doesn’t say so, I think John knew he was never going to get out on parole or have his sentence commuted to life without parole.  Herod had already proven himself to be a sociopathic, Sadamm Hussein-like autocrat.  He had no mercy on anyone who even appeared to be a threat to him, even small children.  John knew who had him in his evil grasp; I think he knew what was coming.  On Herod’s death row maybe he had already become somewhat disoriented, having lost touch with the every day things that helped him keep his bearings.  Maybe that’s why he asked this bizarre question when he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” 

Kind of bizarre, don’t you think?  This is the same John who had baptized Jesus not long before when Jesus entered his public ministry.  You’d think he was already certain of who Jesus was.  So, why’s he asking if Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah or if there is someone else who will fill that role?  What do you think?

We don’t know for sure.  But, ask Jesus he did.  Think about that for just a moment.  John is questioning Jesus.  What’s that about?  Unless that’s the way faith can sometimes be.  Sometimes faith is like that.  Sometimes faith is like granite.  It is solid, deeply imbedded, immovable.  Other times, it’s like quivering Jell-O. 

Yet, if we can listen, John the Baptist is modeling something very fundamental for all of us.  If our faith is ever going to become our own, something more than just what our parents passed down to us from their parents, there must come a time when we ask that question of Jesus for ourselves.  Maybe not under the same circumstances or for the same reasons or with the same words John used.  But, there must come a time when we ask Jesus, “Are you the one I can trust, the one I can follow without reservation the rest of my life?  Are you the one?”

This is John’s model for us.  It is OK, even essential, to ask God our toughest questions.  We all have questions about God.  It’s OK to go to the one you believe to be your savior and ask him anything you want.  In fact, if you were going to ask God a tough question this morning what would you ask him?  Well, go ahead!  Ask!

You may be pleasantly surprised to discover that God responds to you the same way Jesus did to John.  John believed that God would send a Messiah, a human expression of his divine character.  John wanted to believe that Jesus was that person.  When John asked Jesus a question, in his mind, he was asking God.  Yet, Jesus didn’t get angry or defensive at John’s questions; neither will he at ours.  Jesus always responds to legitimate questions seeking the truth.  He sees them as opportunities to build bridges of relationship, as opportunities to grow.  Jesus is always open for business with people who are genuinely seeking the truth and he knows that sometimes it takes the questioning of things we once took for granted to get to the bedrock granite of truth. 

With John, he just told the truth.  He told John’s disciples, “‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’”  “Go tell John that you have seen me using everything at my disposal to empower the disenfranchised and that you have heard giving people hope.”  The evidence Jesus wanted John to have was to be found in how he used his power and how he helped the hopeless find hope.

May I ask you a question this morning?  If someone were to ask you, “How can I know for sure that you are who you claim to be, a follower of Christ?” how would you answer that question?  In the history of the early church, it is recorded that “the disciples,” the followers of Jesus, “were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26).  The word “Christian” actually means “little Christs.”  Those who claimed to be Jesus’ followers had been transformed by his presence in their lives to the point that they looked like the Jesus they worshipped.  What does that look like?

If Jesus is our model, it would seem that these two questions are essential to discovering whether we fit the Jesus description: how do we use our power and are we helping the hopeless find the only hope any of us will ever have, the power of hope in the resurrected Christ.  That is precisely what the life of Christ in us produces, his life living through us in this world, his presence in this world through us.  If, in fact, Christ is our Lord, he is the single most determining factor in what ultimately shapes our lives.

Anyone who has ever been married knows that feelings of love in the marriage ebb and flow.  True love abides.  The feelings of love come and go.  Right now, I’m in one of those “flowing” moments.  Of late, it’s just been particularly important to me to tell Nancy how much I truly love her, with all my being.  And, I do.  I don’t know where I’d be without Nancy.  Yet, when I trace it back even further, I am grateful all the more to the One who brought Nancy into my life.  The source of all my power and hope for living is to be found in the risen Christ.  I don’t know what I’d do without Jesus. 

Sometimes my faith is like granite.  Rock-solid, deeply imbedded, immovable.  Other times, it is like quivering Jell-O.  Either way, how Jesus has been toward me has never changed.  Yet, how can you know that for certain about me, that Christ is that much a part of my life and has made that much of a difference in me?  All I can say is this.  Watch how I use my power.  Listen to my words and see if they give hopeless people eternal hope.  I don’t know of any greater evidence. 

We all have power.  We have word power, like the person who gestured her displeasure at my driving skills on I-30 the other day.  I was so angry when she did that.  I was minding my own business, admittedly not hers.  If I did something to interfere with her life’s goals, I was unaware.  I didn’t deserve her callous, trashy, piggish, gutter-speak.  So, I just stared at her.  I didn’t gesture my disgust in return but it had to show on my face.  Only later was I caused to reflect.  How many times had I used my words with carelessness?  Had I ever used my word power to hurt someone, even if unintentionally?  Do my words bless or wound?

We have sexual power.  Just by virtue of our gender, certain doors will be opened to us that are not to others.  Are we aware of that?  How do we use our sexual power, to hurt or to bless?

We have time power.  Even in this morning’s worship guide, there is a form requesting your participation this Christmas Day in serving food to hundreds of less fortunate souls.  Do you have an hour you could give?  The power of your time could bear witness this next Saturday to the presence of the living Christ in your life and our church. 

We have financial power.  And, we need to use it.  Indeed, as we come to this day of worship, our church is facing some of the most exciting new possibilities for mission we’ve known in a generation.  This new possibility with Buckner Baptist Benevolences whereby we will be able to bring a person with a Master of Social Work degree onto our staff is nothing short of thrilling.  Yet, on this day, we are also facing a $101,000 budget deficit that represents approximately 9% of our annual budget commitment.  Unless that deficit is eliminated in the next ten days, it will cripple us as we enter the new year and hamstring our new mission endeavors.  In this very room, that much financial power is available even this morning.  How will we use it?

Susan Leftwich tells me that a week ago Wednesday, eight three, four and five-year olds brought their offerings for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Mission Offering.  Eight children collected loose change and brought $71!  That’s truly incredible.  What is just as incredible is that each of those children gave more to this church that one night than half of our church has given all year.  Are we using our financial power as we should?

One of our men took me to lunch recently and said, “You need to talk more about money.  You don’t say enough about it but you need to ratchet it up a notch.”  Then, he said, “You don’t like asking people for money, do you?  You act like it embarrasses you.”  I thought about his words and decided he’s right.  I don’t like asking for money because it seems so difficult to do so without getting to a place where I guilt people into giving.  I don’t want your guilt money.  God doesn’t want your guilt money, either.  He wants your love money, your hope money, your faith and joy money. 

With each passing day, the more I believe in what this church is doing and becoming.  The number of people this church helps and the ways in which it does so are simply astonishing.  Even yesterday at our Christ in Christmas program, 1,700 children received 3,000 gifts from our church.  We were serving hot dogs in the gym.  Jerry Spivey had tears in his eyes when he brought in a family that had nothing to eat at home.  They sacked up a bunch of hot dogs for the kids and then took them across the street to Mission: Oak Cliff and filled some baskets.  If you have given anything to this church, you have helped put food into the mouths of hungry people!

If you are not giving, would you start?  If you can’t tithe, would you start where you can and go from there?  One lady in our church said this past week that we have lost a whole generation of young people by failing to teach them about tithing.  She’s right.  So, young people, listen up.  I promise you this.  If you will decide to honor God the rest of your lives with your financial resources, there will come a day in your older years when you will look back and see that to be one of the three best decisions you ever made.  Otherwise, what will become of you and your power?

There is this house I drive by every day.  An old man often stands out in the yard, watering the grass or picking up pecans.  This past week I drove by and there were several cars out front, a security guard and a sign that read, “Estate Sale.”  We know what happened, don’t we?  The old man is gone and now they are selling everything he worked his whole life to save.  Which is exactly what they’ll do with all of our stuff someday.  If our kids don’t do it, our grandkids will for sure.  With each passing generation, sentimental value melts like snow in the blistering sun.  They’ll sell it!  Count on it.  Unless, unless we do something to make certain that, whatever we’ve saved, we’ve made a greater investment in the only things the Bible says will transcend time, faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). 

Nancy’s aunt Jodie died a few years ago.  Several years before, she became all but totally blind from the effects of narrow angle glaucoma.  Until the end, she maintained her sweet spirit.  But, I noticed that at family gatherings she would never look up.  She kept her head down, her chin resting on her chest.  I asked Nancy about that.  Nancy said, “that’s what blind people do.  When you can’t see anymore, you stop bothering to even look up.”

Jesus spent his life empowering those who had no hope, no vision and no reason to live to lift their heads so that he could open their eyes to see what God had intended for them all along.  Those who have chosen to follow him will use their power to do the same. 

The question stands.  As far as this world is concerned, are we the ones they can count on, for power and for hope?  Are we the ones?