Good evening. Tonight we are going to continue our series on The Waltons. If you were not with us last week, we began and we watched part of an episode that was about the fear of change. Tonight, we are going to take a look at another episode, and find a few things that we could apply to our own lives.
Tonight, we are going to watch about a 33 minute clip of episode 4 from the 3rd season. The title of this episode is “The Runaway.” Allow me to set the scene for you. In the beginning of this clip, Jim-Bob was given the responsibility to take home the school mascot, who happens to be a gunnie pig. The whole family seems to not like having this pet in their home. And that is about where we pick up with this episode. So enjoy the show!
(Play Movie Clip. Episode Four. Start at 14:20, and end at 48:14, after the last narration of the show.)
Before we get started this evening, let’s open with a word of prayer. Let’s Pray!
Tonight, I want to see what you all got from this clip. Other than the 18 cents a gallon gas, was there anything else that you saw as interesting from this clip that we could learn form this evening? If so, be prepared to explain?
At this time, I want to just share a few quick things that popped out at me in this clip. I will be brief, and then we will be dismissed. This morning we talked about selfishness, and we looked at several passages about that. And tonight, I want us to look at it in another way. Listen to these verses from this morning once more. II Corinthians 5:15 says, “And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
And again in the NLT version of the Bible, in Philippians 2:3-4 it says, “Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.”
Now, with that said, in this clip, everyone was too focused on themselves. Busyness took over, and they had no time to console Jim-Bob. In the clip, John-Boy asks Jim-Bob why he ran away. Does anyone remember what he said?
He ran away because he needed somebody to talk to, and everyone else was too busy on their own things. From this clip, and life itself, I believe that we all need someone to be able to talk to. When are some times in your life that you needed someone to talk to?
Why do we need people to talk to?
Now, not only do we learn that we all need people to talk to in this clip, but we also learn the importance of making time for others. In the clip, had the family made time for Jim-Bob, he probably would not have run off. Instead, everyone was a bit selfish, too focused on their own tings to pay any attention to Jim-Bob. As a result, he ran off.
What is at stake if we don’t make time for other people?
I also learn from this clip, that sometimes we do need to tell people what is bothering us. In the clip, Jim-Bob never really did come out and tell anyone what was up. Sure, he tried, but he never really made the effort to be known. A lit of times in our lives, we are just like that. We expect everyone to know when we are bothered, and come running to us.
What we have to realize is that sometimes, we have to tell people what is bothering us. In the clip, at the end, the old man that John-Boy was suppose to go see has a talk with the two boys. He tells Jim-Bob that he needed to be patient. He told him that the problem came when “he didn’t get exactly what he wanted right when he wanted it.”
So we learn a little lesson on patience here as well. When you are facing a problem, do you tend to be patient, or impatient?
Well, here we learn that when we have a problem, sometimes we need to be a little patient and give people a chance to respond to us. In this clip, Jim-Bob just runs off when no one shows him the attention he wants right then. The better decision would have been to give them a little time to realize what was going on.
Another thing that I think we can gain from this passage comes at the very end. The narrator says, Jim-Bob said to daddy, “Its okay. Next time I’ll make you listen!” Sometimes in our lives, there are crisis that come up that we just have to make people listen to us. When it comes to sharing about Christ, please realize that it is so important that we need to make people listen. Now I am not saying that we tie them down and beat them over the head with the Bible.
What I am saying is that we need to make sure that we are always doing our best to make people listen. How can we, as Christians, make people listen to the Good News that we have to share with them?
Well, in our actions, in our decisions, and in our words, we need to be always showing people the way to Christ. I believe it was the mother in this clip who said, “Those moments that go by, its no one’s fault. But you wish you could get them back.” When it comes to sharing the word of God with others, you will wish that you could have those moments back, but you won’t be able to get them back. So make sure that you make the most of every opportunity that you get to share Christ with those around you.
Now, before we close this evening, does anyone have anything that they would like to add?
Well, if there is nothing else, just remember, that we all need someone to talk to at times, that we need to make time for others, and that we need to make people listen to the Good News in whatever way we can.
I will close us with a word of prayer, and then we will sing our closing song and be dismissed.
Let’s Pray! |
