by Everett S.
Reynolds, Sr.
Text: Not that we
are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God
(2 Cor. 3:5).
Biographical
Sketch -
Everett S. Reynolds was born in a Methodist parsonage
in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up and attended
several schools in Missouri, and graduated from Omaha
Technical High School. He holds the B.S. degree from
Philander College, Little Rock, Arkansas; the Bachelor
of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary, Webster
Grove, Missouri; and the Doctor of Theology from the
Faith Evangelistic Seminar of Morgantown, Kentucky.
Dr. Reynolds has done additional study at the
University of Nebraska in Educational Psychology and
Counseling.
Dr. Reynolds has
enjoyed a very successful pastoral career serving
churches in Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and
Illinois. Additionally, he has served as university
instructor, consultant, chief parole officer, police
chaplain, president of several ministerial
organizations, and chairperson of the Federal Fund
Review Committee for Health Service for the City of
Chicago, and member of the NAACP for 50+ years. Other
skills include community organizer and leader in local
church stewardship development.
Presently Dr.
Reynolds serves as pastor of the Lefler United
Methodist Church of Omaha, Nebraska. He and Shirley,
his wife for 53 years, live in Omaha, Nebraska and are
the parents of three adult sons.
I would like to
preach from 2 Corinthians 3:5... just these words: Our
sufficiency is of God!
You will find that
these are the closing words of the 5th verse and it is
also my subject. Think with me on these
words&emdash;Our sufficiency is of God.
I want to go back to
the beginning of everything&emdash;before there was
anything, when there was nothing. God made the world,
shaped it&emdash;not square, not oblong, not flat, but
God made a world and shaped it round. Can
you?
Then God created
every living thing&emdash;everything that walks,
crawls, flies, swims, that breathes from its nostrils.
God put the ore in the earth, flung the stars in the
sky, the sun to light up the day and the moon to light
up the night. God did it all, made a world and
everything in it, above it, and beneath in it. Can
you?
Remember the subject
is, our sufficiency is of God.
When God had made
the world, then God stooped down and formed the world,
and created a being. "Then into it he blew the breath
of life, and man became a living soul" (James Weldon
Johnson, God's Trombones).
God started with
nothing and made a world, made this great,
grand and glorious world&emdash;and everything in it
belongs to God alone. Yes, everything in this world
belongs to God; it's God's because God made it. The
trees, grass, mountains, rivers, men and women, the
ability to think, to talk, to walk, to see, to hear,
and the ability to transform that which God has given
into other things such as material, energy, and food.
To work and use the gifts of life, to sing, to draw,
to act and think are all given of God. Yes, the list
is endless, all that God has made and allowed us to
use and/or transform, comes from our God, who made
everything.... Our sufficiency is of God.
Life is a precious
gift of God, and everything we have is a gift of God.
Even the ability to know and appreciate life is a gift
of God.
You might ask, Why
are we talking about life? Because one of the greatest
gifts we have is the gift of life. Related to it is
the gift of new life in Christ Jesus. God gives life
to us all, and eternal life comes through the gift of
salvation from God and Christ Jesus. Our lives are not
our own. They have been bought with a price. They
belong to God. We are only stewards of
life.
The church must
proclaim today, even more than at any other time in
our history, that life is a gift of God and that life
belongs to God and that God has allowed us to use this
life for a while, for three score and ten. As our
foreparents proclaimed long ago, we didn't give it and
we can't take it away. Only God can make a life.
Neither Black nor White, Red nor Brown can make a life
without God.
And I'll tell you
this, you will never understand life until you accept
Jesus. Yes, nobody knows what life is about until they
first know Jesus; if you don't know Jesus, you have no
life. You're just walking around day after day..,
groping in the dark, trying to find your way, missing,
stumbling, falling, complaining. You know some people
can't spend one day of their life without complaining
about everything. It's either too hot or too
cold, too airy or too stuffy. When you know Jesus, you
know that what we use for evil, God meant for good.
You know that God turns stumbling blocks into stepping
stones. Didn't he say it, "I'll make your enemies your
foot stool"? Didn't he say I'll make a way out of no
way, make a door where there is no door. . . didn't
he?. . . didn't he! 0h yes, you know he did.... You
know he did, when you know your life belongs to
God.
There are two words
I want you think on today. The first word is
stewardship. Luther E. Lovejoy wrote in his
book "Stewardship for All of Life," that
stewardship is spiritual and its objective is
character. Stewardship is spiritual, and you cannot
prove it in the laboratory. Stewardship cannot be
proven by reason. Stewardship cannot be proven by
scientific investigation. Stewardship is spiritual and
to talk about "I don't believe in stewardship," is
like saying," I believe in Christ, but I do not
believe in Jesus."
Do you believe your
life belongs to God? Do you believe Jesus woke you up
this morning... started you on your way.., gave you
legs to walk with . . . hands to feel with . . . eyes
to see with, lips to kiss with? . .. 0h yes, that's
right. Do you mean to tell me that all this just
happened? Oh no, I tell you all these are the gifts of
God in Christ Jesus. Just the ability to think is a
gift of God. You have heard the saying, "A mind is a
terrible thing to waste." Young people, get an
education, get the B.A. and the M.A. and the Ph.D.,
and in all your getting remember to get Jesus. Get
Jesus or all your degrees won't help you in life. . .
for life belongs to God.
I remember Mrs.
Brown, couldn't read or write, but she knew her Bible
and knew her Jesus. When the young preacher came to
town fresh out of seminary and preached about racism,
Black achievements and Black power, Black art, Black
music and Black Jesus, Mrs. Brown had said "Amen," to
everything the preacher said except the idea of a
Black Jesus. When the service was over she said,
"Reverend, your show is good, but Jesus is whatever
color you want to make him, ain't he?" Y es, Yes,
Yes... Jesus is white and he's black, he's yellow and
he's brown and he's red. He has given life to every
person of every color, and no person escapes this
Jesus. And you had better believe that the cloak of
minority can be no escape from God's love.
One day on the
corner of a busy intersection, a young Black man said
in the midst of a struggle, "I ain't got nothing to
live for. Kill me, I don't care." He didn't know his
life belongs to God &emdash; and how will people like
him know, except you and I go to the streets and
houses, highways and hedges, and compel them to come
in? Yes there are Black children&emdash;hungry,
mistreated, lonely&emdash;that don't know there's a
God. And many of us with our mink coats, diamond
rings, Cadillacs, and living where the man just moved
out of... we ought to remember that it ain't ours,
that we need to reach out and tell somebody, that what
we have is the gift of God in Christ Jesus and that we
are just using it for we are stewards of God.
Stewardship, using everything God gave to glorify
him.
The second word I
want you to remember is existentialism. It's
just a big word to mean the right-now Christ.
It says I am a steward right now. You see, I'm not
talking some Jesus way back in Bible days&emdash;Jesus
that was there for my Mama and my Papa, I'm talking
about the right-now Christ, the Jesus
today. I'm talking about knowing this Jesus right
now&emdash;that I am a steward of life, right
now. . . knowing that "right-now" my life
belongs to God in Christ Jesus and that everywhere
I go he is there.
"If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell,
behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
even there shall thy hand lead me" (Psalm 139:8-10).
If I'm sick, lonely, hurt, or just plain feel bad,
even there, right there, he is there. God gave us all.
Jesus is still giving us, giving to all people
everything by grace and divine mercy. This existential
Jesus is still healing the sick, still making the lame
to walk, and the dumb to talk, the blind to see, and
setting the captive free. Glory... glory! He
has loosed my bonds. Great God from Zion, he has
loosed my bonds. He has set my soul free. We are free!
I've been born anew in his Spirit and washed in his
blood.
Oh, one day, one
day, we will be called to give an account of our
stewardship&emdash;an account of our life. Jesus is
going to be standing at the gate of the city, with the
Book of Life in his hand. He will open it and find
your name and my name. And they tell me that we are
going to have to give an account of every idle word
spoken, every gesture of the hand and every thought.
0h, I tell you, when that time comes I want Jesus to
say to God, I know this one, this is my faithful
friend. Let him in. "Let them in, glory."
That's when I know our sufficiency is in God, my life
belongs to God, when Jesus says, "Come on in,
glory."
I know I'm a
steward. One day Jesus will say, "Well done! I gave to
you, and now you gave it all back&emdash;your life,
your time, your talent, your money, your everything!
Everything I gave you, you gave it back to me. Come on
up in glory, for Jesus, the son of God, holds the
power and the decision as to who goes in. And right
now, Jesus, right now the joy of life is in your
hands. My life is in your hands. My sufficiency is in
God. Amen.
© 1984-2007
Rev. Dr. Everett S. Reynolds