Musings on a Sermon

I’ve been attending a new church called Mt. Olive in Van Buren.  It’s been awhile since I’ve been in church…now I’m not trying to make excuses, but between working on Sundays, not being able to get my lazy butt out of bed….or dressed to make it to a service, I haven’t been to church in about a month.  Now whenever I go that long between spiritual nourishment, my soul seems to take a hit and I notice that my faith becomes a little rusty.  It’s easier to make bad choices and not give a fig for what other people think.

This past Sunday my Pastor held a sermon that really stood out to me.  Now normally I just take notes and reread services and be content with it.  But this service keeps calling me to blog about it…I can only pray that I can do Pastor Barry proud with it.

On April 15, 2012 Mt. Olive church started a new series called, “At the Movies.”  We started with a five minute clip from Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  This clip was where Lucy and Edmund we’re with their cousin in their bedroom after getting in trouble by their uncle.  They were commenting on how much a painting reminded them of Narnia and how much they’d like to go back.  After some bickering with their cousin about not living in the real world…the painting starts pour out water.  This was what they had been wanting…to go back to Narnia.  Pretty soon they were being picked up by Prince Caspian and taken aboard his ship where they were welcomed and introduced to the crew as the High Prince and Princess of Narnia.

 

The correlation that Pastor Barry made with this clip was the start of an adventure.  For Edmund and Lucy and even their cousin this was the beginning of their adventure.  For the congregation this was the beginning of our adventure!

The main theme that stood out to me was the power of routine in our lives.   Acts 3:1-10 says, “ Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money.  But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,  get up and  walk!” Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them. All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded!”

Just imagine what would have happened if the beggar hadn’t  followed his routine that day…he wouldn’t have been healed!  It was explained to us that we all have decided to make changes in our lives, but pretty soon routine takes over and our hearts deaden and our souls wither.  The first question that popped into my head after Pastor Barry said this was, “Well, what is defined as a routine?”  But, of course, he was one step ahead of me.  It could be something we do the same way day in and day out, or even an attitude we’ve had for most of our lives saying, “I can’t,” or “I’m useless.”  This sounds like all of us.  We’ve all said those two things to ourselves at one time or another.   We’ve all been told this is a defeatest attitude and we shouldn’t believe these things, but speaking from personal experience…it’s hard not to put yourself down or believe that in anything you can and will perservere.   We can change our attitudes and get out of our routine, but then something happens to knock our feet out from under us and we revert back to the way we were.  The routine we worked so hard to get out from under in the first place.  

Another routine could be our finances.  This again struck very close to home.  Russ and I have attended Financial Peace University and have been on the road to becoming debt free for awhile now.  We know what we’re supposed to do and work our hind ends off to do it, but inevitably something happens and we fall back into our old habits.  Last year we made enough money in a side job to completely pay off all our credit cards, but did we?  No, because as soon as the cash came in, we spent it as entertainment money…eating out, going to movies, or purchasing something we really didn’t need.  We’ve set the goal this year that by the end of summer we will have the credit cards paid off.  It’s a little daunting, but I pray every night that God helps of achieve this.  Or at least helps us to stay on track enough that we’re almost there.  We know things are going to break so we just want to be pretty darn close if not done with the credit cards by the end of summer.
So throughout this whole thing you’ve probably been asking yourself… “How do you break routine?” Come on Cassie…get to the good stuff!!!  Well Pastor Barry says, “Its simple! You start living differently!”  Simple!  That’s not simple…that’s freakin hard!!!  He finishes by saying, “It’s simple, but it’s the application that’s hard.”  So how do we start living differently?

“The Daily Practice of Childlike Faith.”

Matthew 18:1-4 says, “About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

The simplest way to change your routine is to practice childlike faith and take it one day at a time.  So what is childlike faith?
1) Trust God Completely.
2) Be Completely obedient to God.

Simple right?  For children yes, but we as adults seem to find these two things to be the hardest things we have to do.  Why?  When did we start not trusting God completely?  When did we stop being completely obedient to God?  This is what I’ve been struggling with all week.  When did this happen to me and why do I find it so hard to have childlike faith?  Heck…I made a goal for this week:  I would read one chapter a night from the bible…every night.  No cheating and catching up half way through.  But you know what…by the second night I had missed my bible reading and haven’t gotten a single night since.  I’ll be missing church this week because I have to work, but I am setting the same goal for myself.    

Also…I found a great blog post that helps you examine things about yourself that you think you know right off the bat, but I started looking and I couldn’t come up with good answers.  So, for awhile at least I will be doing these posts that delve deeper into me.  Maybe, with helping me find me, I can find my childlike faith.