Well, we all know how God works...a little over 24 hours before I was to deliver my part I was asked how I felt about delivering the entire sermon....and that's just what I did.
So for all those wondering what on earth my Facebook post was about with thanking people for their kind and encouraging words...it was for what they said after the sermon. For those who were told they missed out, here's the typed sermon.
Audio link: The Heart of Christianity
And just like the talks I've given over the past couple of years...when I was told the topic, I was thinking...what? I'll have like 2 sentences if I do this on my own. Trust me when I say, take it all to God and then SHUT UP and LISTEN to what He says to you.
...........
The Heart of Christianity
Sermon 7-1-18
Sermon 7-1-18
This week we celebrate the freedom of our country. But today I want us all to think about the greatest freedom of all~the freedom we received because Jesus died on the cross for it. It’s the freedom to be washed clean, made new, and FORGIVEN. The freedom that’s found in God’s Circle of Blessing.
A circle. It has no beginning and no end. For many a circle represents eternity, wholeness, inclusiveness, and yes, even boundaries...ever draw a circle around someone and tell them not to leave their space? How well did that work?
Just like Mr. Busby shared in the children’s sermon, we are going to keep in mind God’s Circle of Blessing. We are going to focus on the importance of staying inside that circle, obeying our Father and following His commands in life…..no matter what life may bring our way.
To help us remember God’s Circle of Blessing and how it links to the Heart of Christianity, I want everyone to take their hands right now and make a heart. Now I want you to extend that heart out until your hands make a circle. Notice that the heart fits within the circle. Whenever you make the heart and circle with your hands, I want you to remember that the heart of Christianity comes from staying within the circle which involves
- seeking forgiveness,
- understanding God can forgive anything
AND
- also understanding that while we may go through trials, pain, and suffering,
- The JOY of God is near.
Let us pray~
Lord, help us all to open our hearts and minds as we hear your message today. Lord, steal my show...take control..for it is all about you and what you know we need to hear.
Amen.
“I know if you wanted to you could wave your hand.
Spare me this heartache and change your plan
And I know any second you could take my pain away
But even if you don’t, I pray.
Help me want the Healer, more than the healing
Help me want the Savior, more than the saving
Help me want the Giver, more than the giving
Oh help me want you Jesus more than anything.”
Pain. We don’t like it. We don’t want. Yet it’s here~and how we choose to deal with it can help us grow closer to God...OR drive a wedge and push us away...out of the circle.
Who has seen the various DUI cars that the Springdale police have placed on display down the road? Here’s an image of one of those cars:
When you look at it I want you to see it with new eyes~I want you to see it as a symbol of pain and suffering...of choices made...see it as a symbol of what you look like on the inside without Christ.
Now let’s get back to pain. What’s the most painful thing you can imagine? Is it the landmine of Legos all over the floor of the room you walk through at night? What about labor pains? Passing a kidney stone? Cancer treatment?
Maybe it’s not the physical pain that hurts you the most. Maybe it’s emotional pain. The pain that comes from words spoken (or the words that weren’t spoken). The names you’ve been called. The judgement passed on you by others. The invitations you didn’t receive. The laughter at your expense. The lack of emotion from a loved one.. The gossip. What about the pain of losing a parent? Or maybe it’s the pain of having to watch your child suffer? Maybe it’s the pain of having to bury your child...you were supposed to go first...right?
Or maybe it isn’t emotional pain from others, but the emotional pain you bring on yourself. Hanging on to a wrong done in the past. Beating yourself up because you tell yourself over and over you aren’t good enough...pretty enough...smart enough...skinny enough, or you should have done this vs. that. The pain of not forgiving others...you just can’t right? They don’t “deserve” it.
Maybe the pain isn’t physical or emotional ~ maybe it goes deeper ~ the spiritual kind. The kind where you think God has left you. The kind where you question how God could do whatever it is you blame Him for.
The list of pain, suffering, and trials can go on forever. And guess what, as we grow older, what we find painful changes. And if we aren’t careful ~ and more importantly PRAYERFUL ~ All this pain can separate us from Christ. If we aren’t careful, we can let the pain take over and find ourselves outside the Circle of Blessing. But when we put our trust in God, the pain can help us to grow into the person God needs us to be, the person God designed us to be.
When I was 8 I thought I was dying. My legs hurt something fierce and we ended up going to the doctor about them. I was so scared that it was all my fault because I had started tight rolling my pants legs. And even with the diagnosis of growing pains, I still wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t my fault. At that moment, I thought that was the worst pain...or maybe... it was the time when I was 8 and I split my tongue in 2 jumping on a trampoline. Yep...that’s it. WORST. PAIN. EVER! Until a couple of years later and I found I couldn’t breathe well. This was a fearful pain. A pain that became a hospital stay later on. A pain that caused me for the first time ever to question why God would let such a thing happen…..remember what I said about separation from God?
The years passed and then physical pain seemed nothing compared to the pain involved with heartbreak. Of course that didn’t compare to having to leave my friends...again...because of moving. Moving in high school is TOUGH. But this time God stepped in where I could see Him. In a way that impacted my entire life. Before the move my youth pastor shared with me Romans 8:28…
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose.
In that one moment, I learned to start telling myself that God has a purpose for everything in my life. God has a purpose for everything in your life too.
I wish I could say that pain stopped then, but it didn’t. While I made a few friends again, it wasn’t the same. The people at my new school grew up together in a small community, had more money, fancier cars, the list could go on. You see I wasn’t part of their “circle.” Not fitting in hurts.
Time passed and then I thought physical pain was the worst as I screamed in horror watching the skin peel from my face and neck due to 1st and 2nd degree burns from boiling water...just kidding, that pain was nothing compared to the pain that came with the healing.
A few years later, the pain came when I walked through the door of my apartment to be told, “We need to talk. I don’t think I love you anymore. I want a divorce” Yep, emotional pain was far worse than any type of physical pain. And while I didn’t purposefully leave church...I didn’t return to find a new one here until 6 years later. Pain can cause separation from God.
Time passed, I remarried, and then a couple years later I experienced it...child birth. Yep...PAINFUL...even with the drugs. And then, I was crazy enough go through it again...but within months I was reminded again that emotional pain was worse than physical pain. It’s painful to watch your children suffer and scream in agonizing pain...with no cure in sight...only “band-aids” to temporarily relieve the pain. I’m so grateful that God doesn’t provide temporary relief….He provides ETERNAL relief.
And then came July 2011 when I prayed to God over and over my desires to have 4 children...but also my fear of having another medically fragile child. I said I was scared...and he answered...with a loud, sassy, tell it like it is spunky, dare-devil of a child who has been mostly healthy as a horse….she’s just my possible ER visit kiddo due to her adventures. She’s my prayer baby. And so yes, I went through childbirth for a 3rd time.
So why go through the same thing over and over again. Even Jesus told the disciples in John 16: 20 and 21…
”Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; and you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.”
So again I ask, why go through pain...especially the same kind over and over. Jesus tells us very clearly that we will suffer in life. That when He leaves earth, His followers will not have an easy life. We will be in pain. We will weep. But….HANG ON because after going through that pain, suffering, weeping...we...will...have...JOY!
Ann Voscamp said, “Our most meaningful purpose can be found exactly in our most painful brokenness.”
The other day I read a post on Facebook that was shared on one of the Bible study groups I belong to. Mary Tircuit shared:
“I was in Dollar Tree last night and there was a lady and 2 kids behind me in a LONG line. One was a big kid, one was a toddler. The bigger one had a pack of glow sticks and the baby was screaming for them so the mom opened the pack and gave him one, which stopped his tears. He walked around with it smiling, but then the bigger boy took it and the baby started screaming again. Just as the mom was about to fuss at the older child, he bent the glow stick and handed it back to the baby. As we walked outside at the same time, the baby noticed the stick was now glowing and his brother said, “i had to break it so you could get the full effect from it.” I almost ran because I could hear God saying to me, “I had to break you to show you why I created you. You had to go through it so you could fulfill your purpose.” That little boy was happy just swinging that unbroken glow stick around in the air because he didn’t understand what it was created to do which was “glow.” There are some people who will be content just “being” but some of us that God has chosen, we have to be “broken”. We have to get sick. We have to lose a job. We go through divorce. We have to bury our parents, best friend, siblings, spouse, or our child because in those moments of desperation God is breaking us but when the breaking is done, then we will be able to see the reason for which we were created."
I’m not sure who said it, but I saw this quote the other day. It said, “If you focus on the hurt, you will suffer. If you focus on the lesson, you will continue to grow.” What would have happened if that little boy’s brother just took the unbroken glow stick away. Or didn’t take it at all, but never revealed its purpose? What would happen if you and I stayed so focused on our pain that we couldn’t move on? What if we kept bringing up past hurts? What if we don’t cry out to God for help? To cleanse us of our sins? Maybe you are sitting out there right now, hurting because of something you just can’t let go of. Or you start to let go, but think you know better so you take it right back from God. Never truly repenting or turning things over to God. Never giving Him time (on His timetable) to turn your PAIN into JOY. You see every time you do that, you are stepping out of His Blessing Circle and saying you can do better without Him.
I want you to think right now. When was the last you can remember feeling JOY? Now think back even further….was there any kind of pain, trial, suffering that you went through before you felt JOY? How did you cross over from pain and suffering into joy?
In the reading today from the Old Testament we hear the cries to God from David after being with Bathsheba.
“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love,
According to your abundant mercy
Blot out my transgressions
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
…….
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And put a new and right spirit within me
Do not cast me from your presence
And do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
And sustain in me a willing spirit.
David cries out knowing he has sinned, knowing he isn’t deserving of God’s grace and blessings, but David doesn’t want to be outside God’s Circle of Blessing. David’s full of regret and remorse. He pleas with God to cleanse his heart, to restore him to the joy of salvation, AND to also sustain in him a willing spirit. David...seeks...FORGIVENESS. He cries to God to be with him and help him remain in God’s grace willingly.
Guess what!
You and I can do that too.
God knows it’s hard for us. That’s why he sent us his Son ~ our Savior~ that’s why we are reminded to take up our cross...DAILY. God is okay with helping us out, it’s okay to say “God, I can’t do this on my own. It’s tough. God I need your forgiveness. I need your help every day to come to you with a willing spirit Lord. Please open my eyes to my own sins and help me to repent of them. Help me Lord...because I want to be with you. I want to be in the circle.” And God is there to help us, just like He was all those years ago for David. He’s there welcoming each of us with open arms. He wants us in HIS circle.
Our God is a loving God. He is our Father. Parents, you know what it’s like to see your children in pain or make bad decisions. You know how hard tough love can be, but you also know how important setting those boundaries and teaching your children is for their growth. It all goes back to those growing pains...they aren’t just something you get when you are 8 years old.
Parents, I’m sure you also rejoice when your child succeeds at things….from making those first cooing sounds to walking to graduating, and so on. You rejoice when your child comes back to you asking forgiveness for the wrongs they did.
So just imagine how much more God our Father feels about our actions. The hurts as well as the joy... and especially when we get ourselves back into the circle where we belong.
And that brings us back to the Circle of Blessing and the Heart of Christianity. Just like how David grieves over his sin, and the consequences of his sin still play out...he finds the joy of God's salvation. His joy is restored, just like a mother giving birth, once he returns to the circle of blessing.
Staying in the circle, seeking true forgiveness, understanding that God can forgive anything, and understanding and having the Joy of God, is the Heart of Christianity.
I want you to take one last look at the image of the car….
Are you going to allow the worldly thing of life to influence how you navigate your life? Are you going to hang on to those things? OR….Are you going to take it all to God and let Him bring you through it?
Amen.
