Myles Eckert, a gold star kid

"Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is

seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”    Heb. 12:2 ESV

 

A short while back I caught an item on one of the national news broadcasts that had a profound emotional impact upon me.  Perhaps you might have also seen it and if you did, I’m sure that it also affected your emotions.  I’m going to use this news item as the premise to our spiritual lesson today.  Here is the news item.

 

A soldier, in uniform, and his family entered a restaurant and were seated at a table.  A few moments later another family consisting of a mother and her children came in.  One of her children, an 8 year old boy named Myles, had found a $20.00 bill in the parking lot on the way in.  It’s what he did with this $20 dollars that provides us with our lesson today.

 

He wrote a short note and wrapped it around the money, took it over to the soldier’s table and gave it to him.  The soldier, a Colonel in charge of an air wing in Ohio, said that he had never been so honored in his life and he keeps the note on his desk where he can see it every day.  Following are the words of the note that accompanied the twenty dollar bill.

 

“Dear Soldier.  My did was a soldier.  He’s in heaven now.  I found this $20 in the parking lot when we got here.  We like to pay it forward in my family.  It is your lucky day!  Thank you for your service.   Myles Eckert, a gold star kid.”

 

“Pay it forward.”  Have you ever thought about this in regards to your Christian life?  Of how this attitude can be related to how we, as Christians, are to operate?  Well, it caused me to think about it with the result being this lesson.  Let’s think about it together for a few moments.

 

You know, “backwards” is not a direction befitting a Christian.  We are to be “looking forward” with our subsequent actions going forward.   There’s the old familiar passage spoken by Jesus in Luke 9:62 where He says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

 

If you’d like to see a good “type lesson” that helps us to understand the meaning of that verse in Luke, then open your Bibles to Jer. 7:24 where the prophet is describing the actions of God’s people Israel.  Look at what God says about them through the hand of Jeremiah: they (Israel) “walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward.”  Anti-type?  The church is now God’s people.

 

Now we know from this passage that He’s talking about a Christian because He uses the term “kingdom of God” which refers to the church.  Therefore, one who is “plowing” is a member, a Christian.  Farmers know that you can’t physically plow straight if you’re “looking back” so you’d be unfit to be a farmer if you were, so it’s pretty easy to see the application Christ is making by using that statement, isn’t it?

 

So, if we’re to be “looking forward,” where should our eyes be focused?  It shouldn’t be hard to answer that question because I’ve already given you the answer in our preamble scripture reading.  We look to Jesus.  OK then, now let’s look at some of the things we should take note of in looking to Him.

 

First and foremost, we look at His sacrifice on the cross and what it made possible for all of mankind.  Salvation!  Eternal life with Him in heaven.   The apostle’s words in 1Cor. 6:20 and 7:23 say that “you were bought with a great price.”  In other words, the price paid for the salvation of man’s soul was His cruel and unwarranted death on the cross.  Think of it this way, He “paid forward” for our hope of eternal life.  Read Rom. 5:8 for confirmation of this.

 

Then we need to emulate the apostle Paul in this regard, that we follow Christ just as he does.  (1Cor. 11:1)   And to further emulate Paul in “looking forward” note what he says in Titus 2:13.  “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”  Paul knew where his hope lay and where the “founder and perfecter of our faith” is now located.  In heaven at the right hand of God.  Knowing that, why would Paul, or any Christian, want to look back?

 

Before we close this, let’s go back to the thought of “paying it forward.”  It’s my humble opinion that, not only are Christians to be “looking forward” we’re to be “paying forward” too.  Well then, how do we do that?  What do Christians have that we can “pay forward?”  Only the most precious, most valuable, thing we have entrusted to our keeping - The Gospel.  The “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth...”  (Rom 1:16)

 

Think about it this way - what do we have to give (pay forward) anyone that is more beneficial to them than the one thing that will save their eternal soul in heaven.  We don’t possess anything near as precious and worthwhile than that.  Paul refers to it as a “treasure” that was left in “earthen vessels” to wit:  the church.  (2Cor. 4:7)   Then we see in Eph. 3:10-11 more evidence of this where he says that “the manifold wisdom of God” (the Gospel) is to be brought to the world by “the church.”

 

I enjoy teaching lessons on the parables of Jesus and one of them is applicable to our lesson today.  I’m speaking of the one called the “parable of the talents.”  (Mt. 25:14-30)   Here’s how I apply the lesson of that parable to this lesson.  We have a duty to use, to share this Gospel “treasure” that’s been left in our keeping.  We see from this parable that we’re not to hoard it.  It must be shared, IE: “paid forward” or we will not be pleasing to God.  We might as well be like Israel of old and be “looking backward.”  God intends it to be “forwarded” to “all the world...”  (Mark 16:15)

 

Ron Covey