Some time ago I read
about a Mount Everest expedition. As we all know, Mount Everest is a popular
destination for mountain climbers, but that doesn’t mean it’s a safe place to
be. It is not a tourist attraction like an amusement park. This mountain is an
extremely dangerous place to climb. It has been said that the bodies of over 200
people are still up on the mountain, bodies of climbers who have died on the
slopes of Mt. Everest. One climber noted: "There are times when you literally
have to step over somebody’s body to get to the top,”
One of the most tragic deaths occurred about six years ago, in May of 2006. A 34 year old Englishman named David Sharp had managed a solo climb to top of Everest and was making his way back down when he began to suffer from hypothermia. He sat down and eventually he died there. As he lay dying 800 feet from one of the Camps on the mountain he was passed by 40 other climbers who were headed for the summit. Not one of those climbers made an attempt at a rescue.
Forty climbers left Sharp to die. Why, we wonder, could they let it happen? It was because they were on their way to top of the highest mountain in the world, a climb which had cost them many thousands of dollars for the privilege. If they had turned back at this point, they may never have made the summit. For this reason they just walked past the body of a man they figured would die anyway.
In Matthew 25 Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven (or the Church) is like a man who gave his servants a huge amount of money, called “talents”. The point the parable was, that each of these servants in the parable received a TASK they could do. Each of them was given something that the Master wanted taken care of. Each of the servants was given a responsibility the Master believed they could handle.
Why would Jesus tell the parable that way? Why would He teach us that the 5 talent servant pleased the master equally to the 2 talent servant? He was showing us that God doesn’t look at your “talent”. He looks at what you DO with that talent.
Some people say:
I can’t teach.
I can’t sing.
I can’t play an instrument.
I can’t do missionary work.
I can’t work on computers.
I can’t cook.
I don’t have a lot of money to give to the church.
I can’t do this… or I can’t do that.
One of the most tragic deaths occurred about six years ago, in May of 2006. A 34 year old Englishman named David Sharp had managed a solo climb to top of Everest and was making his way back down when he began to suffer from hypothermia. He sat down and eventually he died there. As he lay dying 800 feet from one of the Camps on the mountain he was passed by 40 other climbers who were headed for the summit. Not one of those climbers made an attempt at a rescue.
Forty climbers left Sharp to die. Why, we wonder, could they let it happen? It was because they were on their way to top of the highest mountain in the world, a climb which had cost them many thousands of dollars for the privilege. If they had turned back at this point, they may never have made the summit. For this reason they just walked past the body of a man they figured would die anyway.
In Matthew 25 Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven (or the Church) is like a man who gave his servants a huge amount of money, called “talents”. The point the parable was, that each of these servants in the parable received a TASK they could do. Each of them was given something that the Master wanted taken care of. Each of the servants was given a responsibility the Master believed they could handle.
Why would Jesus tell the parable that way? Why would He teach us that the 5 talent servant pleased the master equally to the 2 talent servant? He was showing us that God doesn’t look at your “talent”. He looks at what you DO with that talent.
Some people say:
I can’t teach.
I can’t sing.
I can’t play an instrument.
I can’t do missionary work.
I can’t work on computers.
I can’t cook.
I don’t have a lot of money to give to the church.
I can’t do this… or I can’t do that.
The list goes on and on and on. They think they
don’t have much to offer God because they CAN’T DO the BIG talent things. They
don’t have showy or impressive gifts. The parable, however, is saying that God
doesn’t care about what you CAN’T DO. He cares about what you CAN
do.
This parable is essentially telling us:
Don’t just sit there… do something!!!
Find something!!!
Create something!!!
Do ANYTHING!!!
But don’t just sit there and do NOTHING!
In the Mount Everest story, the 40 people were so focused on the summit of the Mount Everest they left a man to die. Just a few days after David Sharp died alone on Mount Everest another team of climbers led by Andrew Brash of Calgary came upon a man named Lincoln Hall. Hall wasn’t dead. He wasn’t sleeping. He was just sitting there cross-legged at the edge of 10,000 foot drop, changing his shirt. He had his suit unzipped to the waist, his arms out of the sleeves. He had no hat, no gloves, no sunglasses, no oxygen mask, no sleeping bag, no mattress, and no food or water bottle. He just sat there - without proper equipment and barely clothed – and yet ALIVE.”
Brash and his team abruptly abandoned their climb to the top of Mount Everest, and shared their oxygen with him until a rescue team could take him back down the Mountain. They didn’t make it to the summit, but they did something far more valuable as they saved life of a man who was confused and dying.
Those 40 climbers who left David Sharp to die have met with nothing but excuses and criticism, but the climbers who rescued Lincoln Hall met with praise and admiration… as well they should.
God wants to give us responsibilities within His church, and He watches to see how seriously we take those tasks. We must always remember the reason God gave us those tasks was to ultimately use them to reach the lost for Christ and find and rescue the dying.
This parable is essentially telling us:
Don’t just sit there… do something!!!
Find something!!!
Create something!!!
Do ANYTHING!!!
But don’t just sit there and do NOTHING!
In the Mount Everest story, the 40 people were so focused on the summit of the Mount Everest they left a man to die. Just a few days after David Sharp died alone on Mount Everest another team of climbers led by Andrew Brash of Calgary came upon a man named Lincoln Hall. Hall wasn’t dead. He wasn’t sleeping. He was just sitting there cross-legged at the edge of 10,000 foot drop, changing his shirt. He had his suit unzipped to the waist, his arms out of the sleeves. He had no hat, no gloves, no sunglasses, no oxygen mask, no sleeping bag, no mattress, and no food or water bottle. He just sat there - without proper equipment and barely clothed – and yet ALIVE.”
Brash and his team abruptly abandoned their climb to the top of Mount Everest, and shared their oxygen with him until a rescue team could take him back down the Mountain. They didn’t make it to the summit, but they did something far more valuable as they saved life of a man who was confused and dying.
Those 40 climbers who left David Sharp to die have met with nothing but excuses and criticism, but the climbers who rescued Lincoln Hall met with praise and admiration… as well they should.
God wants to give us responsibilities within His church, and He watches to see how seriously we take those tasks. We must always remember the reason God gave us those tasks was to ultimately use them to reach the lost for Christ and find and rescue the dying.
In
Christ,
Brown
Family Carnival
& Chicken BBQ @ Union Center UMC
Public Event ·
By UCUMC IGNITE YOUTH
GROUP Saturday August 18,2012
Time : 12 noon though
4.00 PM
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