The Battle of New Orleans

SPEAKER 01 : 0:12

This is a very bad time, a really bad time for placing blame and pointing fingers. In all the confusion arising out of the disaster in New Orleans, all of the things that have contributed to it getting as bad as it got, no one has all the facts. No one has a perspective to be able to explain all this stuff and try to make sense out of it. Not now. All the finger-pointing is accomplishing is dividing and confusing people who ought to be working hard to rescue, to save, to put lives back together, and to help people. And they need to stop it. There’ll be plenty of time after this thing dries out, after it’s all begun to get back in order, for trained investigators to look at this thing analyze it thoroughly, put the facts together from perspective, stand off to one side unemotionally, and evaluate the mistakes that we made, the things we got right, and how we can help ourselves as a people in the future. There is, however, one thing we can point the finger at. We can point our finger at the awesome job the American people are doing to help their fellows in time of disaster. And it has really been awesome. They’re doing it singly. They’re doing it in small groups. They’re doing it in larger groups like churches and clubs. And as I thought about this, a fundamental value from the Bible came to mind, a fundamental value that God would hold for us. It’s a scripture. It’s a short scripture, but it’s important. It’s Proverbs 6, verse 6, which says this, Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Now all many years I looked at it, I cited this, and I actually marked it in my Bible as an example of zeal, of diligence. It’s not about that. It’s about this next verse. Consider her ways and be wise, who having no guide, overseer, or ruler… provides her meat in the summer, gathers her food in the harvest. The lesson of the ant is, for us, we should learn to do the right thing without being told. That’s the lesson from this particular little proverb. Now the government will do what the government can’t. Sometimes it does things well, sometimes it doesn’t do things well, and we’re all used to criticizing the government, which we sometimes forget is us. But without the people doing what needs to be done, without being told, the situation would soon get completely out of hand and go far beyond anything the government is capable of doing. Fact is, the government really can’t do a lot when things go completely unstuck. You know, we’ve got people out there who are taking complete strangers into their homes. We have people who are almost abandoning their own lives and they’re working as volunteers in shelters and helping out with people. One day, I think it was in Baton Rouge, that the Southern Baptist churches across Baton Rouge cooked all the meals that day for those people at that shelter, meals that were served up to them by the American Red Cross at that shelter, but they provided the food that day for all those people. I have an idea. The next day it was another group of churches, and another day after that probably another group of churches beyond that because the churches have really stood up. In this time of crisis. One man, I think he lived in South Texas, I’m not sure if it was Houston or in that area. He had a van. He was thinking about what he might do, so he loaded up his van with food and water and took off for New Orleans. And he began to distribute that food and water house to house as he came down the streets of New Orleans. He came to one house. A woman was out on the porch waving him down and asking him to stop, which he did. She came out to tell them their husband had died and his body was in the house and could they help her. Well, these men got out of their van, they went inside, they took the body, wrapped it carefully and respectfully, and had a service for that man on the porch of her house before they took her and loaded her and her necessary things up in their van and went on down the way. Now, what motivated this man to do what he did? What was it that drove this man out of his comfortable home, out of his recliner, out from behind his television, lay his remote down, get in his van, load it up, and go down there to do this thing? Very simple. And you listen to the man speak, and you know what it is. I saw him interviewed. The man is a Christian. He believes in Jesus Christ. He did what he did in the name of Jesus Christ. What is it that has so motivated the American people to respond as they have? Well, however remote the Christian faith can seem at times… however much it gets diluted by the culture at times, however it gets dissed by those who want a radical separation of religion and state in this country, the faith of Jesus Christ still exerts a strong moral influence on the values of this country more than any other country on the face of the earth, in spite of all of our failings. Now here in Tyler, up until yesterday, there were three Red Cross shelters. All three of them. were at churches. There were four new Red Cross shelters, or four new shelters designated today. Three of the four are at churches. One is at the University of Texas, and you can bet that the one at the university works because of Christian volunteers who are out there doing the things that need to be done. Just count on it. That’s going on. Now, why do Christian people do this? The reasons are probably very mixed and mingled and you’d have a hard time putting your finger on it. But one thing that comes to mind is a parable of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 and verse 31. He said, “…when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, he will sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all the tribes. He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” He shall set the sheep on his right hand, the goats on the left, and then shall the king say to them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. What a wonderful thing to hear when the time comes to hear it. Why? For I was hungry. You gave me food. I was thirsty. You gave me drink. I was a stranger. You didn’t know me. He took me in off the street and gave me a bed to sleep in, shelter over my head. I was naked, gave me some clothes to wear. I was sick. You visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then shall the righteous answer him and say, Lord, when did we see that? I don’t remember even seeing you, much less doing these things for you. When did we see all this? To me, their response in this situation, the one Jesus presents to us, is fascinating. In a way, I think it’s the center point of the parable. It is that point where you begin to understand something. They do not expect the reward that’s being given to them on this occasion as a right. They did not even feel that they had done anything special. You know, I don’t deserve something for what I have done. What have I done? I’ve just done ordinary stuff. And they certainly did not do the things they did for a reward because probably in most cases they didn’t know that anybody even knew they had done it. Why did they do it then? They did it because it was the right thing to do. And somehow, through our lives, through our culture, that thread of Christian decency flows, which puts in our minds that there is a right way to respond to things in the world, and there is a wrong way. And deep down inside of ourselves, we know the difference. These people do it because it is the right thing to do it. Now, they also did it because they were there. And by that I mean is that sometimes it is a matter of opportunity that comes your way that makes the difference in whether you do something or whether you don’t. Jesus encountered a lawyer on one day who stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And eternal life probably was an issue at the time because some people believed in resurrection, some people didn’t, among the Jews of this age. The question may have even been sarcastic for all we know. And Jesus said, well, what’s written in the law? How do you read? He said, well, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, you got it right. You do that, and you’ll live. Now, this is interesting. Jesus wasn’t picking an argument. He wasn’t looking for a fight. He asked the man a simple question. He gave him the answer out of the law. Jesus said, that’s it. You’ve given the answer. But the man willing to justify himself said, which is an interesting statement all by itself, and I could run down that road, but I won’t go down that way today. I’ll save that for another sermon. He willing to justify himself said to Jesus, Well, and who is my neighbor? A loaded question if I ever heard one. Jesus said, Well, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and on the road he fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothes, wounded him, and departed, leaving him in a ditch half dead. Poor guy. Tough life. Now, by chance, there came a certain priest that way. He saw him, passed on the other side. Likewise, a Levite came down the road. When he was at the place, he looked at him and he passed on the other side and left this poor fellow lying in a ditch. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he felt sorry for him. He had compassion on him. Now, this thing has been explored in sermons so many times over the years. You’ve all heard all the stuff about Levites and priests and how despised the Samaritans were. And Jesus’ choice of this guy is priceless in the cultural context of the time. You’re lying in a ditch half dead when somebody’s beaten and robbed you. Do you care because the Samaritan? You care about his race? Do you care about his religion? You care about anything except the fact this guy stopped and helped me and nobody else did. Anyway, he saw him, had compassion and felt sorry for him, went and bound up his wounds and poured in oil and wine. He put him on his own animal. and took him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out some money, gave it to the host, and said, You take care of him, and whatever you spend more than this, when I come again, I will pay it. Put it on my tab. Which presumed the guy knew the innkeeper, and the innkeeper knew him. Now, Jesus asked, Which of these three do you think was neighbor to him that fell among thieves? He says, Well, he that showed mercy on him. Jesus said, You go and do likewise. Now, this parable is pregnant with meaning. I mean, it is really loaded. You can give sermons for a long time just based upon this one parable and the things that could be learned from him. It is striking that two key areas of religious duty did not see it as their duty to help this man. Their religious duties, ceremonial mostly, did not include taking care of a poor guy knocked down by the road. I don’t care about whatever else you may think about priest duties and Levite’s duties. That’s still the point. The Samaritan, though, was motivated not by duty. He was motivated by compassion, and he was there. This is the other side of this thing. One of the reasons why these people are doing good works for the strangers coming to their town is because they are there. They encounter the situation. They have the opportunity. There is a right thing to do, and those people are doing it. I’m here. This man is hurt. I can help. That’s opportunity. When the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, there were people who were already there. You know, there were a lot of places you could give money, but there was one particular organization, and I’m sorry, I really should remember their name. I think it may have been World Vision International. They were already there and had a lot of people on the spot. These were the people then that from a long distance away we could have helped because they were the ones with the opportunity. They were the ones that might have needed the money, and they were the ones that could apply it directly to people that they knew would do the help. But why were those people there? They were there because they were Christians. Running over there to help might only have further burdened the system, just like you and I running down to New Orleans probably would have. People here sent aid to the people who were over there and the people who had the opportunity to do something about it. Now, there’s an organization of recreational vehicle RVers out here in our country who call themselves the Good Sam Club. The Good Sam is short for the Good Samaritan. One day I was driving while Allie and I were on our way up through Colorado. I had a little sports car at the time. We were on a vacation, and we broke down alongside the road. Several people passed us, but one guy stopped. He had a big old trailer behind his car, his pickup truck, and up on the trailer I saw the little round medallion, Good Sam Club. He felt, this guy needs help. I’m here. I can help him. And he stopped to see what he could do and to see how he could help me. You know, there are people who do that to him. But the Good Sam Club is based on a story from the New Testament, which entered into our culture. Helping is oftentimes just a matter of opportunity. Then sometimes it’s a matter of means. There was an occasion in the early church where that called for people far off to have to help. The reason for it was fairly simple. There was a terrible famine coming in Jerusalem. It had been prophesied by prophets in the church. It’s coming. And word had gone throughout the Christian church at that time, we’ve got to help the poor saints in Jerusalem. So we’ve got to get some stuff together. Now the people close at hand who had opportunity couldn’t help. They didn’t have any food either. So the idea was that people way off somewhere would come through to help. Now Paul has this interesting insight into the situation in 2 Corinthians. It’s an interesting thing because of the glimpse it gives us into the life of the time The thinking of the time, the way people felt about things at the time, it’s a very personal and interesting statement. In 2 Corinthians 8, he says, Moreover, brethren, we want you to know the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality. Now, he’s writing to the Corinthians and he’s saying, I want you to understand something. These people up in Macedonia, they’re poor. And I want you to understand those people up there have outgiven everybody. I never cease to be amazed, in fact, at how it is the poor who are often the most aggressive to give help. I had a letter come to my desk just yesterday saying, had a $3 offering that had come with the letter. And inside is one short sheet of paper, a little bit of sheet of paper said, I’m homeless. Use this wisely. Three bucks. You talk about putting the pressure on. It really does. And I will do everything I can to use it wisely. And I wrote back to the person and I told him, I said, you know, times like this, it’s tempting to send this back to you, but that would be denying the sacrifice that you’ve made. And I pray that God will bless you richly for your heart, for your attitude. I know your circumstances are tough. And that he will be the one who pulls you out of the situation you’re in. But it’s so common. For him, that was the equivalent of writing a really big check is to a lot of other people. And I think it may be easier in a way. I may put it this way for the poor. Because they have down to the place in life where they’ve got nothing left to lose. So here, take everything I have. And you have the example, of course, of the widow who gave basically all her living one day in the temple. And Jesus did not go grab it, take it, and give it back to her and say, you can’t do this. He just said that God will bless that woman for doing that. Anyway, talking about the Macedonians, he said in verse 3, To their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves, praying us, begging us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon ourselves the fellowship, the partnership is what that word actually means, of ministering to the saints. And they did this, not like we had hoped they would, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and afterward… us to us by the will of God. Man, you know, what wonderful people those were. And it was a time when it was hard to be a Christian, a time when you were a strange person if you were a Christian and couldn’t get a lot of support from very many places. The church had to cling together. The old saying goes, we either hang together or we hang separately, and they hung together. And to see the attitudes is just so inspiring. Later, Paul emphasizes, though, He is not laying any requirement on the Corinthians. That’s not the point. He says in verse 8, I speak not by commandment, I’m not commanding you what to do, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. You know, he’s doing a little fundraising technique that’s still used to this day. He said, look what these people over here did. You don’t want to be behind them, do you? Surely you can do better than they did. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty you might be rich. Herein I give my advice. This is what I’m advising you. This is expedient for you because I know for a fact you started on this project a year ago. It’s not as though they weren’t doing it. But he was just concerned that they wanted to be sure that when he got there they would be ready and he wouldn’t get there and all of a sudden say, oh, oh, oh, I forgot and be rushing around trying to get something done on this to the embarrassment of Paul and of the people he was going to bring with him. He says, for if it be, verse 12, a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man has and not according to what he has not. In other words, you give out of your means, not beyond your means. I meant not that other men be eased while you are burdened. That’s not what we are trying to do, Paul said. But to kind of balance things out, that at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, and that their abundance may also be a supply to your want that we can have a balance. In other words, he’s saying we have got an obligation to help each other. Fair enough. Paul goes on to discuss some of the necessary questions of organization, logistics, and along with accountability. He’s concerned that he has certain witnesses that are present because he wants everyone to know that they have handled this money properly, this gift properly. It wasn’t money, by the way. It was goods. Money is not much help in a famine. You can’t eat it. 2 Corinthians 9. Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go on ahead to make up beforehand your bounty, whereof you had noticed before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, not a matter of covetousness. In other words, we’re not trying to get this out of you. We want you to give it freely in this situation as a bounty. But I say this, he that sows sparingly, shall reap sparingly. He that sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. Every man give according as he purposes in his heart. So let him give, not grudgingly, not of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Just let go. So God does not expect us to give what we don’t have. And the first law of helping the poor, don’t be one of them. Be very careful to maintain your financial integrity, your financial strength, because the time may come when you need it to be a help to other people. And if you have given it all away for whatever cause, you won’t be there to help. We do not have to wreck our own lives to salvage the lives of others because there’s no net gain in doing it. Pure and simple. So we see that Christian people respond from compassion when they have opportunity and according to their means. There’s something else, though, that I think needs to be taken into consideration. We should also respond according to our talents and our gifts. Now, in Matthew 25, earlier in the same section we were looking at before, he said this. And he took his leave and went away. Now, I’m not going to drag you through this whole parable again. It’s so familiar from so many sermons that we’ve been given. The thing I want to call your attention to is that we are all different. We all have different abilities. We all have different capabilities of things that we can do. And we, therefore, need to look at things according to our ability. That’s what God expects of us. He gives us opportunity. according to our ability. He gives us means, according to our ability. Now we know, through much repetition, that God holds us accountable for what he has given us to work with. But for where we are today, that line, I think, needs to be really considered carefully. To every man, according to his several distributed ability. Before we charge off into the sunset to do something we are not well suited to do, Before we get in the way of people who do have the ability and maybe create a problem for them ourselves, we should take a few moments for self-evaluation and to look at where God has placed us, what he has given us, what we are able to do and what we are not able to do. Writing to the Romans, Paul said in Romans 12, marvelous passage of Scripture, often cited, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Not dead. Alive. You’re useless dead. Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And don’t be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. Don’t let this world drag you off. Don’t let this world drag you down. You’ve got to stand up for Christ. I say this to the grace given to me, to every man among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Don’t get up on your high horse, folks. He says, think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. You know, it’s a bad, a bad illustration, I suppose. But if you can just think of God as dealer. And he has the cards, deck is stacked, by the way. And he deals to each of us according to the measure of our faith. He doesn’t give you his cards. He doesn’t give you her cards. I mean, it doesn’t work that way. He gives you what he wants you to have and places you. As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and we are members of one another. Having then gives differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy. Hey, if you’re a prophet, prophesy according to the portion of faith. If it’s serving. Hey, get out there and serve according to the proportion of faith. He that exhorts, let him get up and do it. So here I am, exhorting away. Let him do it. He that gives, let him do it generously. Hey, one of the things that many of us can do, may not be able to do much else. We can give. We can give clothes. I mean, there’s a definite need right now down at the Salvation Army for clothes, because a lot of these people got in here with the clothes on their back, and that was it. There’s a need down there right now for that type of thing. He says, if that’s what we’re given, if we’re going to give, let’s do it generously. He that rules, let him do it diligently. If you’re going to run a crew, stay on top of the job. He that shows mercy with cheerfulness. For some people, their best service is to give. And there’s another one thing. What you do or what you don’t do should never, never, never be motivated by guilt. Motivated by guilt? You’re not going any way with that. Here’s an interesting little question for you. A fellow was flying a helicopter in and out of New Orleans, rescuing people right and left. They land on this particular place. Should he feel guilty that he isn’t out there helping to carry the litters and put them on the aircraft? Of course not. A lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of effort has gone into making this man a really good pilot. There are only a few people in our country, relatively, who can actually do what that man does. And it’s not safe for him to get out. His job is to stay right there with his hand on the controls of that helicopter and be ready when those guys tap him and say, we’ve got him on here, it’s time to go. And the word comes over his little thing he’s got in his ear says, let’s get out of here. He needs to be ready in that moment of time to get him out of there safely and quickly and just have his mind on that helicopter. not on whether or not they’ve got the litters all over, you know, somebody’s carrying these litters out here, not because somebody’s got blood on his hands, not because of any of these things. He’s got one thing and one thing only he should have on his mind, the safety of himself, his crew, his aircraft, and those poor people that he’s loaded up to get out of there. Never, ever feel guilty about what you’re not doing. If you want to feel guilty, feel guilty, but don’t let that be your motivator for why you make a decision as to whatever it is you’re going to do. I was struck by a story from Baton Rouge. I mean, you talk about something simple, something ordinary, something down to earth. There was a group of bankers who went over to that big shelter in Baton Rouge and were sitting down with people to help them sort out how to get their money. How to get a social security number if they got off without a social security card and any ID and nobody knows who they are. How to establish their ID. How to get a driver’s license. These bankers are in there helping these people solve jobs, problems that they understood, they knew how to do it, and the people didn’t. So what if they’re off down in New Orleans carrying litters of bodies and what have you? That’s not what they do. That’s not what they’re good at. What they’re good at is handling finances and helping poor people get it sorted out. and helping them find financial help if indeed that’s what they need. I thought about this. I thought I would be of very little use in a rescue operation in New Orleans. Very shortly, they’d be having somebody in to rescue me. When I interview my abilities, I was thinking about this and I remembered one that I had all but forgotten. I have an amateur radio license. Not only do I have the license, I’ve got the background, the skill, and the technical knowledge to have a radio on the air. Now, amateur radio is not what it used to be when disasters came along because so much high tech is around now. But there are times. There are times when these are the men who can oftentimes help you find someone. These are the men that will oftentimes relay phone calls, sometimes from soldiers overseas. And it made me realize that I’ve kind of let something get away from me. Technology has bypassed me. But when things really get bad, the old technology sometimes is all that works. Dodd-It. Morse code. you know, A’s and N’s and CQ’s and all that stuff that I knew how to do. And I need, frankly, I’ve got a radio on the shelf. I need to get it down. I need to put up an antenna so that if something strikes again, I will be ready. By the time I get mine going, it will be too late for this disaster. But anyone who thinks this is the last disaster we’ll ever have is not thinking. If I were a computer programmer with the requisite skills, I might set up a database and a website for locating displaced persons. It turns out that’s already been done by a lot of people, but I don’t know at the moment if there’s any connection between these databases, any master database, any way of really helping. I was so moved looking at that group down in Houston. Greta Van Susteren was going up and down the place, and she was giving kudos all over the place to Houston and to Texas because of what they were doing, doing a good job down there, by the way, as we are here. Big bulletin board with paper stuck all over it. What was it? Names. Names of people, family members that were lost, that they had no idea where they were. Their family members may be alive. They may be dead. They may suddenly find out that their mother or father or brother or sister wound up in another city. They may be all the way up in Ohio somewhere because there are refugees, and I’ll call them refugees. If I were one of them, I’d say, yeah, I’m a refugee. I’m not going to feel bad because somebody called me a refugee. Clean up in Ohio, and I’m sure beyond that. God pre-positions people for times like these. You know, it’s really funny. I thought some people were criticizing the government. It was almost as though they thought they should have that hospital ship sitting off of New Orleans when the hurricane came in, never thinking where would the hospital ship be now if it had been there then. It would be useless for sure. But I thank God. places his people in place for times like these. It’s hard for people to understand that God might call a man to be a banker, that God might call a man to be the very best banker, the best kind of banker, to learn the skills, to be a good example to the people he works with, to be highly qualified technically in certain aspects of life, so that the Christian principles might be applied in this particular place. Not so much to organize Bible studies in the company, but to be a light, you know, a beacon in that company of righteousness, of goodwill, of knowledge, of excellence in performance. I think it’s a mistake to assume that God doesn’t have his bankers, his computer programmers, his helicopter pilots. So take a little time for self-evaluation. You know, stand and look at yourself in the mirror for a few minutes and then maybe go sit in a chair somewhere if that’s discouraging. Don’t get overwhelmed by the size of the job. And don’t think the things that you do are too small to make a difference. You can’t know what small thing you do connects to a small thing I do compared to what small thing somebody else does to make a profound result in the life of somebody we will never know and never hear about. I think that’s what the Bible is saying when it says, cast your bread on the waters. You’ll find it after many days. And I think for many of us, we’ll not find it until the resurrection of the dead. And don’t, whatever you do, don’t let yourself fall into the blame game, the finger pointing. It is a waste of time. It is worse than a waste of time. It is destructive of what’s going on right now. Learn to be the very best you can be at whatever it is that God has called you to do. I think it was John the Baptist that said, if you’re called being a soldier, care not for it. It was Paul. Don’t worry about it. If that’s where you are, that’s where you are. You need to be good at it. Now, I’m grateful to live in this country, beyond words, not because of its wealth, but because of its people and because of the faith that motivates those people. Now, how serious is all that? I want to take you back to Matthew 25 again. I passed over it earlier on, but I think it’s unfair not to come back to it. Matthew 25, verse 40. Here are the people on the other side. He says, Well, actually, he said to them on his left hand, verse 41. Depart from me, you cursed and everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry. You gave me no food. I was thirsty. You gave me no drink. I was a stranger. You didn’t take me in. I was naked. You didn’t give me any clothes. I was sick and in prison. You didn’t come to me. And they will say, well, Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t minister to you? And he said, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. These shall go away into permanent punishment. And then there is this last word. But the righteous unto life eternal. Somehow, that expression, the righteous, has a new ring to it to me today. It is not synonymous with the religious not synonymous with the religious it’s found in this simple idea the king shall answer and say to them in as much as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren you have done it to me that’s righteousness Thank you.