Sunday, January, 2019
It doesn’t matter what your job is. Are you a
student trying to graduate? A young adult new in the workforce? A professional, at the top of your game?
Or, has it been so rough, you’ve you given up on career ambitions? Are you just trying to make ends meet and
make it to retirement? Or, are you into retirement? Where we are in life - it doesn’t
matter. When we walk in the light, we
are near God. Being close to God, we
have real joy and even if life is hard, we have grace and hope. So, how
do we have a close relationship with God?
That’s the point of this series of sermons about walking
in the light. Last week’s truth: if we look for God, we’ll find him. If we constantly seek, we will meet God in
our everyday lives. So, in 2019, commit to disciplines of awareness. In a notebook write down every “God thought”
you have throughout the day. At the end of each day, review what you’ve
written, and pray. Ask God to reveal himself to you in those
moments. Do this every day.
Disciplines of
awareness. Carry the word “Grace”
on a card everywhere you go. When anger at another person rises up in
you, whip that card out. Look at it, hard. Remember, God has given you grace. Pray.
Ask God to help you give grace to the other. At the end of each
week, review moments when grace invaded your anger. Meet God in those moments.
Disciplines of
awareness. Take pictures of things
you see that make you think of God. At the end of the week, go through
the pictures slowly, praying as you look at them and remember where you saw God
in your everyday life.
When we see the light,
we can step into it and walk in it. That’s today’s discipline. Walking in the light, we obey God throughout
our lives. God won’t force His will on us. He lets us choose to be disciples and as we
choose to live under His rule, he walks with us, blessing us. Three
specific decisions must be made by anyone that desires to walk in God’s light:
first, we decide that God is the absolute authority of our lives. Second,
we decide to know what God says by reading the Bible and learning how to listen
to the Holy Spirit. Third, we decide
life with God is worth the cost.
Joseph the earthly
father of Jesus, John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and the prophet who paved the
way for Him, and Jesus Himself each model the obedience of a life lived under
God’s authority.
When Joseph decided to
stay with Mary and be her husband, he didn’t know a woman could become pregnant
by the Holy Spirit. He did not understand that she was carrying in her
womb the son of God. What he knew was
God told him to marry her, and he did. God told him there was danger and
he had to flee to Egypt. He didn’t know
anyone in Egypt. But, he packed up their
recently acquired gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and took Mary and the baby
Jesus to Egypt. When God told him the danger was passed, he believed and
returned to Israel.
John modeled the same
obedience as he preached fiery sermons that so enraged Herod, he imprisoned and
then executed John. John never wavered in the message because he knew he
was saying what God had told him to say.
Jesus did not want to die on the cross. But he knew God’s plan and
went with it obediently. That’s what
obedience is: doing what God says even when we don’t understand or, worse, do
understand it and know it will be hard and don’t want to obey. But we do
anyway. Each of these heroes of faith
decided to obey God.
If we believe God’s authority is absolute, we
need to know what God’s instructions are. We can memorize the the 10
commandments, study the sermon on the Mount, and contemplate the fruit of the
Spirit, found in Galatians 5. We can carry the lists of virtues found in
different places in Paul’s letters. We
can and should read everything Jesus says about caring for the poor in Matthew
25 and throughout the Gospel of Luke. We must know the content of the
work. Knowing the Bible is a starting
point for obedient living.
The rubber meets the
road when we’ve studied and then in our in daily interactions with people, try
to live by what we’ve read. The Holy Spirit, the third member of the
trinity, helps us. Joseph was surely
tempted to leave Mary when he found out she was pregnant and he wasn’t the
father. He was a decent man willing to reject her discreetly. But gentle or not, the temptation was to push
her away. The Spirit helped Joseph obey
the message of the angel and marry her.
John was undoubtedly
tempted to fear Herod, but he in spite of the fear, he obeyed. Letting
fear guide us instead of faith is a real temptation. A lot of people God calls to serve in
missions don’t go because they’re afraid: afraid it is too expensive; or,
afraid it is dangerous to travel to other countries. If you feel in your
gut God calling you to something and resist because you’re afraid, that’s
disobedience. John knew Herod would
probably kill him for his preaching, yet he openly critiqued the king when the
king’s marriage broke God’s law.
Have you felt prompted
by the Holy Spirit to talk to someone about faith in Christ? Did you
resist because you were afraid you’d look stupid or the person would reject you
and maybe stop being a friend? Walking in the light involves making the
decision to risk speaking and looking like a fool or risk going, even to
dangerous places, because we trust the nudge of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is God and living in a right relationship with God is more important
than living safely or living an easy life.
Maybe speaking out is
easy. You’ve already shared your faith with someone this and January is
not even two weeks old. Maybe you’re fearless. You’ve already got your overseas mission trip
for 2019 planned. You may be tempted in
some other way to disobey God. Faith always has a cost.
When I was young, I had
a mixed record of obedience. My idea of what a man should be led me to
play high school and just a little bit of college football. My idea of
what a man should be led me to enlist in the army and go through infantry basic
training. Part of my commitment as a
Christian was to stay a virgin outside of marriage. I kept that commitment. However, in the locker room and in the barracks
guys were constantly bragging, usually in vulgar terms, about the women they
had been with. In those conversations, I
stayed as quiet as I could, but inevitably, someone would look at me with a wry
smile and ask, “What about you, Tennant?” My commitment to sexual purity wasn’t
tempted. My commitment to honesty
was.
Sometimes, I said, “I am
Christian. I am waiting for marriage.”
There might have some teasing, but usually when I made a statement like
that, my teammates or fellow soldiers respected me. Other times I was
asked, “Tennant, you’re awfully quiet.
Have you been with a woman?” And
with the opportunity to speak about my faith, I lied. I said, “Of course I have.” Instead of
representing Jesus, I thought lying would make things easier on me. I broke of one of the 10! Thou shalt not bear false witness.
I had already decided
God was my authority. I made the first decision. I knew the Bible and heard the Holy Spirit.
I had make the second decision.
But, when I lied, I didn’t make the third one. I did not decide
that life with God, in that moment, was worth the cost. Since then, God has forgiven me of the sin of
lying and the greater sin of ignoring the Holy Spirit. God has given me
additional chances to tell the truth and be a witness and I have done
that. It’s taken time and 2nd and 3rd
and 100th chances from God, but I have since decided that the cost - I might
get teased for being a 30-year-old virgin - was worth it.
Of course I have been
tempted in numerous other ways and succeeded to represent and obey God at
times, and failed at other times. And my decision to obey God’s teaching
about sexual purity and about truth-telling is nothing next to Joseph’s
life-or-death moments of obedience, or John and Jesus’ decisions to obey God to
the point of death. But God is not comparing me to Joseph or John or
Jesus. God is not comparing you to
anyone. God meets us in the midst of our
obedience.
I had shame when I lied
about my experiences in order to fit in with other soldiers. The Holy
Spirit let me sit in that embarrassment, but was with me the entire time. God gave me grace and additional
opportunities. When those opportunities arose, God emboldened me to be a
truth-teller and to be someone more concerned with my identity in Christ than
with what others thought of me. Looking back on these times, I have
gratitude.
What matters most today
is your story, your walk with God in 2019. First, decide that God
is God - the ultimate authority not just in the universe but in your life.
Second, decide to know what God says by reading the Bible and studying it
with other believers. Third, the hardest part, decide that whatever the
cost, you’ll obey; you’ll live God’s way.
The third decision is
the hardest because of the ways we get tempted and what tempts me is different
than what tempts you, but we all get tempted. We don’t have the willpower
to resist. We need the Holy Spirit’s help.
I talked earlier about
disciplines of awareness. We also need disciplines of obedience. You could think of many and should choose
what works for you. I offer one suggestion. Bring to mind what tempts you. What is it in life that leads you to forget
about God and do things your own way? Temptations are so powerful, you
won’t even need to write this down. But
you do need to name it. Name two
temptations and imagine those specific places in your life these temptations
come up.
Now, commit to praying
every day for a minute or so specifically about this temptation. In this
daily prayer, name the temptation, confess to God that it’s hard to resist,
then ask for help from the Holy Spirit in resisting. Don’t miss a day.
Finally, at some point
every month, review. Review the previous 30 days. Identify moments in which you felt the
temptation. Be honest in your review.
If you gave into the temptation and disobeyed God, confess, receive
grace, and repent. If you succeeded, with the Spirit’s help in resisting
the temptation, celebrate. Thank God and
praise God for God’s willingness to walk with you.
God helps us obey.
We practice the spiritual disciplines in order to position ourselves so
that that we’re ready and willing to receive the love and grace and help God
has for us. I can tell you from my own experience that deciding it’s
worth it to obey God is hard sometimes, but brings great joy. In those times I failed to obey, but then
confessed, I received forgiveness. And the life I have in Christ, is one
I would not trade for anything. There is
no greater joy than the joy we have in the light of God. God wants that joy for you. He holds it out
to you because He loves you. Make the decision today to follow Christ and
walk in His light.
AMEN
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