Necessary Traumas Recap

The whole point of this sermon series has been to take humorous events from my life growing up, so to speak, to talk about an important phenomenon within the church.

We need to GROW as Christians.

Our growth, however, is likely to come in spurts.

No pain? No Gain, right?

We run into these events and awarenesses in the Christian life and they change us and then subtly alter our progression in the Christian life.
The Traumas

We are the problem (Sin).
Even after we convert, we are still the problem (Sin).
We have to forgive.
We have to physically and mentally work for the Gospel.
We are going to suffer and there is growth to be found in it.
We must give it our all.

Romans 12:1-2 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The Story

A person seldom rises above the system they’re operating in.
Food designers

A Club through Yahoo right when it was beginning.
It was so cool; I was emailing with people from all over the world recipes and ideas. You really had the feeling that the world was going to change.

But then, something happened.

We couldn’t rise above the SYSTEM.

And so, over time, we lost track of people. I daresay I can’t reach ANY of those people.  They’re gone to me.
And the worst part of it was that I could’ve been spending that time and energy with actual people I could’ve met with and eaten with. Lifelong friends.  But I gave up that energy to the internet, never to be retrieved.

We are all in a system – the Bible calls it “The World” “Ho Cosmos” is the actual Greek, I believe.
The Bible tells us we need to get out of it.

Not by running away to the hills but instead by practicing the Way.

Christianity
We need a better system.

But developing a system takes work and it take your full investment.  You’ve gotta go ALL IN.

Going All In

Deuteronomy 6:5 – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Jesus is going to cite this verse in a very important section of Matthew.

An instrument of evil, even though they themselves didn’t know it, a lawyer stepped forward and asked Jesus an important question.

Boil it all down for us.
Jesus’ response?

Matthew 22:36-40 – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

So, in order to do the deal, we’ve got to be willing to put everything on the line that we can.

That sounds a bit, well, scary.
We don’t know how doing this will turn out.
But is it worth it?

Really listen to what Jesus says:

John 10:10 – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
John 5:24 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.”

So, we’ve got access to an abundant life now and eternal life later.

Here’s how we do it:

We create the right system.
The Presbyterian Church does not really offer you much of a way to do this.

63 percent loss since inception

They cite, “The world” basically.
But they don’t consider – organization incompetence.

It’s a system that should put us in contact with Suffering and sacrifice, really.

To do the Way, you’ve got to undertake both as both together will lead you closer to the Lord.
And remember, we worship JESUS who did what?

Suffer in sacrifice and die!

We should do likewise.

1 Corinthians 11:1 – “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Suffering

Well, we talked about this last week.
Suffering is a lot of things but, it is primarily experienced by us as a restriction of freedom.

Like, when you have a toothache, you can’t eat a steak. But you might really want one.

Your freedom is limited.
That’s the earliest way we suffer.

So, here’s how we’re going to take a measure of suffering. We’re going to sacrifice a little time.

Give it to the Lord.

Starting Your Day

Read Scripture – RAW UNREFINED
Meditate on the Word
Pray
Preferably do it in that order.

Do this BEFORE Your devotions.

This is a sacrifice of your time that will bless you and others lavishly if you can get into it.

Right at the beginning of your day, you’re going to do what Paul says, present your body as a living sacrifice.

Read Scripture

Try to do it apart from other people’s interpretations at this point. Pure, raw, unrefined Word.

The Psalms are great for this if you want something quick.

In your closing prayer

Announce and attach your intentions to do the Lord’s work during the course of the day.

Father, I don’t know what you have in store for me today but, I pray You’ll keep me attentive to Your voice, ready to serve and filled with energy if called upon.

Boom – you’re now in a posture to take on!

Now, take on your day.

See what happens.
Do it for a week and I GUARANTEE something meaningful to your life will occur.

During the Course of the Day

Try to maintain active contact with God.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

When good things happen, rejoice WITH the Lord and give thanks.
When bad things happen, PRAY WITH the Lord.

I mean, you can do this in just a second in your car at a stop light.

Give everything to the Lord.

TRY to help someone with something.

Make it a declared goal every single day.
Every single day I’m going to do at least ONE thing that appreciably helps someone or something.

GIVE AWAY SOMETHING AWAY OF VALUE

This one is tough. May not be able to do it every single day but you want to adopt this practice.  It’s Biblical.
Giving money to the church is a great way to do it.

You may hear about a tithe and that’s great, a very Old Testament way to schedule giving. Very faithful.
But the New Testament stresses sacrifice over percentages.

Give until it hurts. You should, in fact, feel a slight stress over giving.

Not much of one and, man, if it’s between food on your table, a roof over your head or medicine to keep you healthy, please do not give to the church.

In fact, if you’re in that position, I’m hopeful you’ll come to me, and we can speak about it. There are ways this church can and will help its members with what she has.

It might not solve the problem, but we will try.

At the End of your Day

Reflect with the Lord
How did you do?

Were you honest, kind, faithful?
OR did your day take a darker turn?
Chances are, given that you’re human, you probably need to do a little bit of both.

So now you’re going to reflect.

1 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?”

I find it really helpful at the beginning to write this stuff down.

That way, I can go back and see trends but, I confess, my energy to do that written work ebbs and flows during the course of the year.

With the good stuff

Rejoice – Know that you’re doing the deal.

With the bad stuff

Work on it.

Talk to a soul friend, someone that’s dear that loves you. Preferably that person should be a Christian.
If it continues, talk to a pastor.
Continue to pray, asking the Lord for help.

AS you GROW!

Join a directed Bible class!

Good news! Freddie and I are starting one with an eye towards the future.

Give more.

Time, money, energy insights.
The move you give, the more you will grow, that’s not a joke.

Develop a Ministry.

Using the gifts that God gave you, find a way to make a process out of some good you are doing.

Great example of this – Kajiado.