Grosey's Messages

Father’s day. Men like things short sweet and to the point. Harsh and hard and heavy doesn’t cut it. But short sharp and sweet, that always does it. Cut to the chase!
One of the things that is impressive about children is the straight answers you get.
One of the most popular shows on television many years ago was the show that Art Linkletter hosted that featured children called "Kids Say the Darndest Things." The fact that it was so popular and that we still enjoy hearing the strange thing kids say is evidenced by the appearance of a new show patterned after the old one and hosted by Bill Cosby.
I have always thought that children can say the most unusual and funny things. And I like to hear a good story along these lines. All of you who are fathers, whom we honor this Father’s Day, could probably give me quite a list of funny things your children have said and done.
Recently, I came across a few of those stories. A little girl named Amy sent a note to her pastor which read, "Dear Preacher, I heard you say to love our enemies. I am only six and do not have any yet. I hope to have some when I am seven. Your friend, Love, Amy."
The following happened in Sunday School. After the Sunday school teacher told the story of the Prodigal Son to the class, she asked, "Was anyone sorry when the Prodigal Son returned?" One boy answered, "The fatted calf."
Bringing home report cards have been the source of many a strange comment. A cartoon in the New Yorker showed a father scowling over a very bad report card while his little boy stood by, asking, "What do you think it is, Dad? Heredity or environment?" Here is another. The young boy brought home a report card heavy with poor grades. His mother asked, "What have you to say about this?" The boy replied, "One thing is for sure, you know I ain’t cheating!"
The Lord Jesus does that. He is brutally honest. And He cuts to the chase.
John 11:23Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. 23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. 24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

1. What? Do you Believe this? This!
John 11:23Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. 23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. 24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
The Saga Of Death
Over 55 million humans will enter eternity in 2007. Some will perish through starvation or murder, others through disease and accident. Some painlessly and others painfully, but all 55 plus million will DIE. Is that a result of a catastrophic tragedy? No it is daily life and death on planet earth! What's the real tragedy? Not death - all will die, some quietly, some slowly, and some violently as perhaps many thousands did in the terrorist attacks. But being unprepared - that's the ultimate tragedy.
151,323 fellow humans also died.
In fact every day over 150,000 people die in alleys, roads, slums, mansions, fires, hospitals, beds, and planes. In no way to lessen our shock, dismay or horror, but to help us in gaining a perspective, every[1] year 55,233,000 people die across our planet.
This morning as we open to John 11, reflect with me upon the agony we as humans experience when we see death's hopelessness and our helplessness to avoid it. Our predicament is captured[2] well in the words of Paul Hoon: Technology has freed humanity from the confines of earth and into space to travel at 25,000 miles an hour, but even there death can find us.
Industrialization has freed humanity to move to a new job or a new home, or from a lower to a higher income tax bracket, but even there death can find us.
Electronics has freed humanity to turn a dial and enter into a multitude of experiences quite foreign to his own, but even there death can find us.
Education has freed humanity"s mind and conscience; Medicine has freed humanity from diseases; Psychiatry and chemistry has freed humanity’s emotions; Music and art has freed humanity’s imagination; but no matter where humans have gotten death can find us.
A thousand advances may be made, yet, people are rightly called "homo perturb-batus," restless man, intoxicated with such freedom as he has never known before.
For all his gains, the man who travels at 25,000 miles an hour has a nervous breakdown.
Affluence and poverty, each in its own way, lock him in. Television captures his sensitivities and homogenizes his tastes. Education becomes a treadmill. Vogues in art fasten upon the public consciousness, and 3 million people buy the same novel. Drugs enslave.
And then wherever man may be death can find us.
The legend that surrounds the Death of Alexander[3] the Great from history reminds us of our universal helplessness before death. After conquering the known world by the age of 33, Alexander engaged in a drinking bout with his generals while he sat in the magnificent hanging palace gardens of Babylon. This binge led to one of his generals dying that night and Alexander becoming so ill that he never regained his strength. As he lay dying in his tent outside Babylon Alexander crawled on all fours to the River Euphrates intending to drown himself. His hoped his body would be lost and that men would believe that he was, in truth immortal. His wife dragged him back and put him in bed where he died. Posterity now remembers the man who conquered the world but was helpless at death.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Plato the Greek philosopher said “Oh that there was some certain word upon which we could launch our hope as we cross this vast sea of death!”


The Saviour From Death23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. 24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Martha understood that because of Jesus, her brother would rise at the last day Undoubtedly she had in mind a passage from Daniel 12: 2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
But Jesus says there is something more here.
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die
He was saying that there was something in Him as God the Son that brought life to the dead.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
But there is more yet.
By His sacrificial death for our sins, and by His resurrection He has bought life for us.

1 Corinthians 15::20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:55-58 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.


2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. Little wonder the pagans said of the early church that they carried their dead as if in triumph! Aristides, a first-century Greek, marveled at the extraordinary success of Christianity and wrote to a friend,
"If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby." And so it is. At death believers set out from one place to another. There is reason for sorrowing but "not as those who have no hope."


2. Why? Do you Believe this?
Believing is God’s way of salvation.
Jn 3:16
Jn 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Jn 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Jn 6: And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
And Death’s not the end—’neath the cold black sod— ’Tis the Inn by the Road on our way to God
Believing Is The Gracious Way of Salvation
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Believing makes one to differ from all the world Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Believing Produces Commitment.

3. Who? Do you Believe this?
You.. Personal Belief This is More Than Popular Belief
This is an intensely personal act of your own faith, by which alone Jesus Christ can be of any use to you. Do not be led away by any vague notions which people have about the benefits of a Church or its ordinances. Do not suppose that any sacraments or any priest can do for you what you have to do in the awful solitude of your own determining will--put out your hand and grasp Jesus Christ.
And there is only one way by which any man can come into any vital and life-giving connection with Jesus Christ, and that is, by the exercise of his own personal faith. And remember, too, that as the exercise of uniting trust in Jesus Christ is exclusively your own affair, so exclusively your own affair is the responsibility of answering this question. To you alone is it addressed. You, and only you, have to answer it.
There was once a poor woman who went after Jesus Christ, and put out a pale, wasted, trembling finger to touch the hem of His garment. His fine sensitiveness detected the light pressure of that petitioning finger, and allowed virtue to go out, though the crowd surged about Him and thronged Him. No crowds come between you and Jesus Christ. You and He, the two of you, have, so to speak, the world to yourselves, and straight to you comes this question, 'DO YOU Believe?'
Don’t go hiding in the middle of the multitude, in the middle of the church, and let this appeal from the pulpit go diffused over your head unaffected by what I am trying to make a pointed, individual address. Suppose all the other people in this place of worship were away but you and I, would not the word that I am trying to speak come with more force to your hearts than it does now? Well, think away the world and all its millions, and realise the fact that you stand in Christ's presence, with all His regard concentrated upon you, and that to thee individually this question comes from a gracious, loving heart, which longs that you answer, 'Yea, Lord, I believe!'

You.. Powerful Belief This is More Than Patchwork Belief
Why should you not? Suppose you said to Him, 'No, Lord, I do not'; and suppose He said, 'Why do you not?' what do you think you would say then? You will have to answer it one day, in very solemn circumstances, when all the crowds will fall away, and you are gathered to that Great white throne of judgement. 'Every one of us shall give an account of himself,' and the lips that said so lovingly at the grave of Lazarus, 'Believest thou this?' and are saying it again, dear friend, to you, even through my poor words, will ask it once more. For this is the question the answer to which settles where we shall spend eternity. Say now, with humble faith, 'Yes, Lord!' Yes, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.


Francis Collins earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Yale University and then entered medical school. During his training at a North Carolina hospital, a dying woman often talked to him about her faith in Christ. He rejected the existence of God, but he couldn’t ignore the woman’s serenity. One day she asked, “What do you believe?” Caught off guard, Collins’ face turned red as he stammered, “I’m not really sure.” A few days later the woman died.
Curious and uneasy, the young doctor realized that he had rejected God without adequately examining the evidence. He began to read the Bible and the writings of C. S. Lewis. A year later he fell to his knees and gave his life to Jesus Christ. The catalyst? A sincere question from an elderly woman whose physical heart was failing but whose concern for others was strong.