“Necessary Traumas – Surrender”

Proverbs 3:5-6; Romans 12:1-2                                                                                         January 21, 2024

• Sermon series recap
  • There are two types of people in this world;
    • The listeners
      • Heed instructions
    • The take-actioners
      • Find out for themselves
    • Most of us are the latter.
      • Which means that there will be these times in life, these “Necessary Traumas” that enable you to grow up, acquiring the necessary wisdom to live life as a Christian.
    • We’ve all had similar experiences
      • Last week, I told you about my Underoos experience.
        • The trauma of waking up to the fact that sin isn’t just other people’s problem, that’s it’s our own
        • We talked about how if we wanted to grow in this life and to see this church grow, we were going to have to take very seriously this proposition
          • That, at some level that we can correct with God the Father’s power both ourselves and this church through the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ.
            • We can grow individually and we will then grow congregationally.
          • Growing up in life is inevitable.
            • Growing up in the FAITH is not guaranteed
              • We have legions of Christians who’ve been baptized but are not really engaged with their faith
              • We have scores of Christians in the pews who’ve been baptized but aren’t really engaging with their faith much outside of a one-hour window on Sunday mornings…occasionally.
            • The promise is that what God has begun. God will complete.

The First Trauma is realizing that you’re part of the problem, that you’re a sinner.

• Remedy – by the power of the Holy Spirit, you become a Christian.

The Second Trauma is when you realize that just because you’re a Christian, there’s no guarantee you’re not still sinning.

The Miss Barksdale Story

• Go back to first grade
• At some level, I’ve never really gotten better
  • On my laptop right now are about three books I’ve completed
    • Haven’t edited – I hate that.
  • But you see the point remains
    • Nobody likes being corrected.
      • We call churches that expect certain behaviors from their members cults, and for good reason.
      • But that doesn’t negate the fact that we just naturally deviate from the flightplan so to speak, even being Christians.

Doughnut Hole STORY

• Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
  • Moved the Hole.
    • Gluttony – Cute, but it’s sin.
  • One of the dangers of grace is that it gives us an even easier out than you might imagine
    • We can come to our shortcomings and say, well, God forgives me.
      • Paul in Romans
        • Should sinning go on that grace may abound?
        • BY NO MEANS! He says
      • YES GOD FORgives you
      • YES GOD WANTS YOU TO DO BETTER
    • The fact of the matter is that we need ongoing correction WHICH REQUIRES SOMETHING OF US
      • We submit ourselves to some sort of authority
        • That’s the role of your relationship with the Word
          • Jesus Christ as forgiver
          • The Bible as the lens by which we see ourselves as sinners.
          • I also suggest an Anam Cara – a soul friend
            • Someone you’re talking to about your struggles and your troubles
              • My struggle is doughnuts, at least that’s the one I’m telling you about. There are others.  My friends know about them.

Things are getting worse

• Pop Tart story – SKIMPFLATION
• There was a meeting in that boardroom. People were there.
  • Let’s just say that for a person there, the personal payoff for the change was $2000.
    • Would you?
      • HINDSIGHT BIAS
        • We always believe that we’ll choose right or virtuously but the science says otherwise.
      • And here’s where it gets really sticky
        • That person, the one who profited? Guess who put him there?
          • Well, chances are, you had a hand in it.
            • You hold that stock in your portfolio YOU have entrusted a board of directors and given them one mission – make MONEY which.
          • Yes, you have to admit, you probably would.
          • What would change the calculus?
          • The fact of the matters
            • A relationship with Jesus Christ would
            • Now think, what if everyone in that room had a relationship with Jesus Christ.
              • Is the outcome any different? Maybe
              • But what’s certain, the hearts of the people in the room will be right.

How Churches formed in the Ancient Times

• 2 years of practice, training, education, support
• Now, we dump some water on your head, hand you a giving envelope and head you out into the world
  • We are getting substandard results because our practice of the faith is insufficient.

What the heck happened to the church

• People left
• Consumer Churches gave people more of what they wanted and less of what they didn’t
  • Gone were committees and commitments
    • Just come and see the show, really. Toss whatever you’ve got in the bucket
  • Gone were catechisms and communion
    • Relics of slower times and less hurried lives
  • In were flashy bands and screes,
  • Gone were pews and stained glass windows
  • In were laser shows, levitating drummers and stadium seating
  • And, yeah, we kind of resent them.
    • But if we had been doing our jobs, people wouldn’t have left.
      • The truth of the matter is that we abandoned the Word generations ago
        • Through sophisticated theologians like Karl Barth and Paul Tillich, we simply do NOT believe in the same way as past believers
          • We’ve been blinded by philosophy
            • Don’t miss that – the Bible TOLD US THAT WOULD HAPPEN in works like Second Timothy, Second Peter and Jude.

There is a real way to practice the faith.  AN easy way to be a quote-unquote “real” Christian….

• Come to church, that’s the first step
• THEN…
  • Read your Bibles
    • Look for moral instructions not trivia
      • I remember getting a book all about the types of stones on some relic mentioned in the Bible
        • An entire book? Good for the curious, a rabbit trail for the seeker.
          • Stay on the ethical teachings in the Bible.
        • Concordances
        • Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, James – Seek out the wisdom of the Bible

Confess your Sins

• To Jesus Christ
• To a soul friend
• To everyone