Sunday, October 19, 2008 
Scripture reading: 1 Timothy 6:18-19
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
Sermon Title: "A FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE" Sunday, October 19, 2008
REV. KRIS STEELE: Today has been
designated as Children's Sabbath Observance Sunday.
Today the United Methodist Women have called on us to
highlight the importance of children in our society
and to consider how we collectively as citizens and as
individuals can work to build a community where all
children can live in safety, security, and free from
the fear of abuse, neglect, and abandonment.
Sometimes it is easy for us as adults to get
distracted, stressed, and just plain too busy to fully
appreciate how important the little ones are to the
greater good of our church and our community.
Children are truly our future. They make life fun,
exciting, and unpredictable. We are blessed here at
Wesley to have so many outstanding young people
involved in the life of our church.
Scripture reads Jesus said let the little
children come to me, and do not stop them, for the
Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Now one of
the most impressive things about this passage is that
Jesus actually took the time to laugh, hug, and play
with these children.
At this time in Jesus's life, he was embarking on
the journey to the cross. One would think with all
that looming before him he would have felt that the
time for play and laughter had long passed, but even
our savior had time for children. Children are,
indeed, very special and important people, and they
deserve the best we have to offer them in protection,
nurturing, education, monitoring, in the allotment of
our time, and the sharing of our faith.
There was a 10-year-old girl who was scheduled to
have open heart surgery. In an attempt to mentally
prepare this little girl for what was about to happen,
her mother said, Now the doctors are going to have to
open your chest so they can look inside your heart.
The little girl without hesitation responded, Why? Is
it because they want to see Jesus? Now, apparently
the little girl had taken literally the Sunday school
lesson which had been taught her that when we believe
in Jesus and accept him as our savior, he lives in our
heart. We can learn a lot from our children.
I'd like to identify several initiatives taking
place in the State of Oklahoma to establish a good
foundation for the future to insure our children have
a healthy start in life. In 2005 we ranked 44th in
the nation in number of children who did not receive
proper immunizations. In 2006, we moved from 46th to
26th, and I'm happy to say today nearly 90 percent of
the children in Oklahoma have their immunization from
the 10 most deadly diseases.
We also determined every child born in our state
should have access to prenatal care regardless of any
pre-existing conditions. The program is called Soon
To Be Sooners. In addition, we know as we sit here
this morning there are approximately 116,000 children
in our state who do not have access or who are not
currently enrolled in a health care program.
We note there are about 730,000 kiddos who are
currently eligible for our Medicaid program or Sooner
Care program, but their parents just haven't taken the
time to enroll them. So we are going to be very
aggressive in trying to identify who these children
are and help get them in a relationship with a primary
care physician so they can begin receiving normal and
routine medical services.
Also, the legislation has passed a provision that
will provide assistance on a sliding scale for 30,000
children in our state who are not qualified for
Medicare, but whose parent still can't afford to
provide health care insurance. Next we made a
decision to offer health care coverage for our foster
parents living in the state. Any child in foster care
already is eligible for Sooner Care.
This is Children's Sabbath Sunday, and it's a
Sunday for us to decide what we're going to do. What
is going to be our responsibility in addressing the
situation in Shawnee and in Oklahoma in relation to
our children? I'm happy to say here at Wesley there
are a number of ways for people to be involved.
You can volunteer through our LOGOS program. You
can help with our children's youth ministry on Sunday
evenings or Wednesday evenings. You can participate
in the juvenile detention ministry at Carter Hall, or
you can lend a hand with the Kickapoo Apartments
Outreach Ministry.
We need your help. Today is a day for us to
consider how we can be involved, for us to determine
whether or not being involved is even a worthwhile
investment. Well, it is. Our children are valuable
to our church and to our community. They're valuable
to our state and to our nation. We need them, and
they need us.
In the name of Christ, Amen.