Sermon: PastorBryon – February 10, 2019
How do you intend to show love to people? If your friends
and family members were given a survey to review the way you love would it
coincide with the way you intend to show love?
United States Senator Jake Garn of Utah did something most
of us admire—and perhaps should consider doing ourselves. He donated one of his
organs to save a life. A recent survey says 73 percent of Americans approve
organ donation. But only about 20 percent actually sign donor cards and make
arrangements for our corneas, kidneys, or other organs to be used when we die.
In Senator Garn’s case, however, he did not wait until his death to donate his
left kidney. His 27-yearold daughter, Susan Garn Horne, suffered from
progressive kidney failure due to diabetes. Her condition deteriorated, and
doctors determined that she needed a kidney transplant immediately. Jake Garn
and his two sons were all found to be compatible donors. The senator insisted
that he should be the one to give the kidney. “Her mother carried her for nine
months,” he said, “and I am honored to give her part of me.” So, on September
10, 1986, in a Washington, D.C. hospital, a six-hour surgical procedure was
performed to remove one of his kidneys and to implant it into his daughter. The
radio news broadcast a story on Garns, and in it was a comment from the doctor
who put the donated kidney into Susan’s body. At a press briefing at Georgetown
University Hospital, the doctor said, “The senator is awake, has a bit of a
grin on his face. He seems very self-satisfied, and happy and peaceful.” The
senator had to be in pain at that moment. The incision through which his kidney
was removed goes from his back to his front ribs. There were tubes in him,
needles yet to come, and several weeks of recuperation lying ahead. But he was
smiling! That grin on Jake Garn’s face could have meant only one thing: no
regrets. Love makes it possible for a person to do the most difficult and
dreaded of things without looking back. Think for a moment about what Jesus did
to save you. He left the worship of angels to be born in a stable. He accepted
the limitations of human form, suffered indignities of the greatest magnitude,
and shed His lifeblood to purchase your redemption. The most astounding thing
about all He did is that there is not a word in the Bible which indicates that
the Son of God regretted doing it. On the day of His ascension back to the
Father, there may have been a bit of a grin on His face. His only regret would
come if you refused His gift of life.
Loving like Jesus loves is a high standard to set and impossible on our own to meet. Jesus sometimes asks us to do what seems to be the impossible simply because he wants us to depend on his power not ours to complete the task.
As we continue with our 40 days of love we’ll examine how Jesus loved during his time on this earth and how we should follow His example of loving others in our own lives.
33 Little children, I shall be with
you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the
Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. 34 A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. 35 By this all will
know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”