Communion Message
In sync with God
January 11, 2004
Pastor Leighton Sheley

Tony Campolo tells this story. He says, I was asked to be a counselor in a junior high camp. Everyone ought to be a counselor in a junior high camp just once. A junior high kid's concept of a good time is picking on people. Yea, that's right. And in this particular case at this particular camp there was a little boy who was suffering from cerebral palsy. His name is Billy. And they picked on him. Oh -- they picked on him.

As he walked across the camp with his uncoordinated body, they would line up and imitate his grotesque movements. I watched him one day as he was asking for direction. Which...way...is...the...craft...shop, he stammered. And the boys mimicked that awful stammer. It's...over...there...Billy. And then they laughed at him. I was irate, but my furor reached its highest pitch went on Thursday morning it was Billy's cabin's turn to give devotions. I wondered what would happen because they had appointed Billy to be the speaker. I knew they just wanted to get him up there to make fun of him, and as he dragged his way to the front you could hear the giggles rolling over the crowd.

It took Billy almost five minutes to say seven words. Jesus...loves me...and I...love Jesus. And when he finished there was dead silence. I looked over my shoulder and saw junior high boys crying all over the place. A revival broke out in that camp after Billy's short testimony, and as I travel all over the world I find missionaries and preachers who say, remember me? I was converted at that junior high camp.

Now we counselors we had tried everything to get those kids interested in Jesus. We even imported baseball players whose batting averages had improved when they started praying. But God chose not to use the superstars, He chose a kid with cerebral palsy to break the spirits of the crowd. He's that kind of God.

Some people think that revival will break out if there is a particularly eloquent preacher. That's not the case, and sometimes a particularly eloquent speaker can actually get in the away. Paul the apostle said, I came to you not with eloquence of speech but with the power and the presence of God's Holy Spirit.

Our Pastor's message today is revival. And I guess one of way of describing what revival is is when our spirits synchronize with God's spirit. It can't happen unless God initiates it because we are spiritually dead and He is the source of life. It can't happen unless God initiates it, and it won't happen unless we respond. Some of the people who were early for the first service got an example of what many of us operate our spiritual lives like. One of our pastors has a 2-year-old son. I remember when my son was two. They call it the terrible twos for a reason. And he said to his son, come on son. And you heard this little 2-year-old voice as clear say NO. And then those little 2-year-old feet walked where daddy told him to walk. Sometimes that's the way we are. We're walking the way God wants us to walk, but we're saying no.

There's a Family Circle cartoon sometime back where the little boy was sitting in a corner; I guess he was being disciplined for something. And you heard his thoughts or his words in that cartoon it said, I might be sitting on the outside, but inside I'm standing up. That's not being in sync. We might be obedient by our actions, but our spirits really aren't in sync.

The Scriptures say at times like this when we have these elements we should examine our self. So I'd like to invite you, if you're physically able, to join with me now as we kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior. The Scriptures say if we confess our sin, He's faithful, He's just, He will forgive us our sin - sin is that being out of sync, being rebellious-- and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

As the old hymn says, Lord, our hearts are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. Thank you Lord for being so faithful to us when we are so often unfaithful to You. Thank you Lord for Your mercy and Your patience with us. Lord forgive us of our sin we pray and cleanse us from our unrighteousness. These elements we partake in remembrance of You. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.

Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord for forgiving our sin and cleansing us, each and every hour of each and every day, whenever we come to You. Thank you Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said...Amen.