Sermon 12.30.12
I know I have been talking about doing this for a long time but I now feel that the time is right. One of my New Year's resolutions is to make my sermons more accessible to those who want to read them. I also would like to engage some discussion if it suits you. I would like to keep in mind that these sermons are pretty well what I say but there are times where I may stray away from what is written. Also, these sermons are not proofread very well so please try to look past the typos and spelling errors to find the true meaning of the message. I am so thankful for all of you who have helped form my faith and my ministry. My hope is that by reading these sermons you will find ways to grow in your faith and I would like to think that I will do the same.
God Bless,
Clinton
With 2013 quickly approaching I am sure most of you have given some thought to what your resolutions will be in the New Year. These resolutions often include: weight loss, more exercise, quitting smoking, or giving more money or time to a church. But we set resolutions similar to these every year and if we would accomplish them, we wouldn’t have to resort to setting the same resolution every year. Instead, we could move forward, we could set new resolutions, new ways to improve our health or our faith but it seems by the end of February we have already forgotten what we set out to do for the year. We lose motivation, we run out of time, or we have missed our workouts or diets a couple of times so we decide to give up and wait until next year to try again. But if we set goals or benchmarks for every week, month or couple of months we have something to aim for. Sure we may miss one opportunity but if we set a goal and keep our minds on reaching it then we can shake off those doubts and continue to strive to set out what we want to accomplish. So step one of setting our goals is done. Next, step two: preparing your body, mind, and heart to accomplish your goals. This means that if you want to exercise more often that you would have to buy some workout clothes and comfortable shoes. Or if you are going on a diet, you have to prepare your mind to eat things that may not seem very appetizing. Regardless of your resolution you have to prepare yourself to meet those goals you have set. Third, those who find success in their resolutions usually do so because they have someone who has kept them accountable. They have someone who calls or shows up at their door to get them out of bed to go workout when they do not want to. The have someone who will sit down and eat broccoli and grilled chicken with while everyone else enjoys a piece of pizza. When someone is there to keep you accountable, you do not just let yourself down when you miss a workout or meal you let someone else down as well and that is much more difficult to deal with. No, I am not a motivational speaker helping you to keep this years New Years resolutions but I think a lot can be learned from this when applying these same tactics to our faith.
As Christians, we should set resolutions for our faith and we should set them as a church. It is easy to say that we would like to see the average weekly attendance to go up 10% or that we would like to see the weekly giving to go up 5%. These goals are good ones to aim for but I am going to be honest, they are not the type of goals that I particularly care about. I know as a pastor I probably should care about those numbers but I do not. My goals have nothing to do with how full the church is or how much the church gives every week. One of my goals is that I want each of you to be fed spiritually every week. Your faith and your relationship with God means a lot more to me than how much you give each week. In today’s world, churches are run like businesses and there are aspects of the church that should be ran that way but I care more about the success of your faith than I do anything else. And the goals you set for the growth of your faith should be similar. So step one, set goals for your faith. For example: this year I want to listen when God is telling me something, I want to show 3 people how God works in my life this year, or I want my faith to grow deeper. While it is nice to set goals like reading the Bible in a year or praying more those can be difficult to follow and they are easy to give up on after missing a few times... Trust me... But if you set goals like the ones I mentioned a minute ago, those kind of goals have more dimensions to them, they are more involving and those type of goals will help you read the Bible and pray more.
Step two: preparing your body, mind, and heart to accomplish your goals. Today’s scripture emphasizes this aspect of today’s lesson. We are reminded to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, love, humility, gentleness and patience. When we get out of bed, we are not dressed for the day, the clothes that each of us wear in our daily lives vary but nonetheless we each have to get prepared accordingly. The same holds true as we continue to grow in our faith, we have to equip ourselves to go out into the world. Paul is using this analogy on purpose so we can visualize ourselves preparing for our faith each and every day. We have to dress ourselves in love, compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility and patience so we can show the love of Christ to others. For example, if you were to get dressed to go work out, you would not wear high heels and a dress or cowboy boots and coveralls. You have to dress yourself according to your purpose. And the purpose of our faith is share the love of Christ with the world and we have to dress ourselves with these things in order to accomplish this goal.
Step three: find someone who can help keep you accountable. It takes humility to acknowledge that it is difficult for you to accomplish your goals without the help of someone else but it is necessary. This is the very reason that so many programs have mentors or supervisors because they are in place to help you accomplish your goals. Again, the same holds true for our faith. If you have a friend or family member in which you can confide in then I encourage you to seek them out. But it has to be someone who is strong enough to say something to you when you are struggling. It is easy to pat someone on the back when they are doing great things but it is much harder to help someone when they are struggling. I have found friends that I can go to and seek advice and guidance but they are also willing to tell me when I could do something better and that is important. We all need someone who can keep us accountable.
The final step I did not mention early in my example of new years resolutions because it is something we often forget that we can do. Step four: ask God for His help. Romans 8:26 tells us “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Again Paul knows that we can struggle to know what we are to pray for sometimes, we do not always know how to ask for the help we need. We could pray wordless groans and the spirit can interpret our prayers for us. No matter our resolution, whether it deals with our faith or not, do not be afraid to ask for God’s help. With the help of God we can accomplish anything. I have been doing a little research on personality types. I have discovered that I am an introvert which means that it takes a lot of energy for me to be up here. I am fairly uncomfortable in social settings and I am a little socially awkward. But why would God place me in a job where I am in front of people all the time and in a lot of social situations. I have discovered that this is part of God’s plan. See God uses our weaknesses to show others His strength so that way others know that the strength and skills they have are not of their own origin. They are from God’s. God has taken a socially awkward introvert and molded him into a pastor so others can see what happens when God’s power is at work. There are countless more examples of this sitting in the congregation today. Look at each one of your weaknesses, then take a closer look at where God has placed you. Everyday God places us in situations where we could not get through if we were trying to do it on our own. There are certain things that we could only accomplish with the help of God and uses that to show them His power.
With these four steps we can accomplish anything but once we have, today’s scripture reminds us to do it in the name of Jesus all the while giving thanks to God. It is easy to think that we have accomplished so much on our own but really we could not accomplish much without the help of God. In the upcoming year I encourage you set faith related goals that will bring you closer to God and I promise the results that you find will be better than you could have ever imagined. Before we set goals to grow our faith we first must enter into a living, breathing relationship with God. The only way to do this is to invite Christ into your heart. Maybe God has called you to make Fairview your home and if that is the case we would be more than happy to welcome you into our family. Amen
God Bless,
Clinton
Sermon - Clothe Yourself with Love
Passage: Colossians 3:12-17 "
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
As Christians, we should set resolutions for our faith and we should set them as a church. It is easy to say that we would like to see the average weekly attendance to go up 10% or that we would like to see the weekly giving to go up 5%. These goals are good ones to aim for but I am going to be honest, they are not the type of goals that I particularly care about. I know as a pastor I probably should care about those numbers but I do not. My goals have nothing to do with how full the church is or how much the church gives every week. One of my goals is that I want each of you to be fed spiritually every week. Your faith and your relationship with God means a lot more to me than how much you give each week. In today’s world, churches are run like businesses and there are aspects of the church that should be ran that way but I care more about the success of your faith than I do anything else. And the goals you set for the growth of your faith should be similar. So step one, set goals for your faith. For example: this year I want to listen when God is telling me something, I want to show 3 people how God works in my life this year, or I want my faith to grow deeper. While it is nice to set goals like reading the Bible in a year or praying more those can be difficult to follow and they are easy to give up on after missing a few times... Trust me... But if you set goals like the ones I mentioned a minute ago, those kind of goals have more dimensions to them, they are more involving and those type of goals will help you read the Bible and pray more.
Step two: preparing your body, mind, and heart to accomplish your goals. Today’s scripture emphasizes this aspect of today’s lesson. We are reminded to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, love, humility, gentleness and patience. When we get out of bed, we are not dressed for the day, the clothes that each of us wear in our daily lives vary but nonetheless we each have to get prepared accordingly. The same holds true as we continue to grow in our faith, we have to equip ourselves to go out into the world. Paul is using this analogy on purpose so we can visualize ourselves preparing for our faith each and every day. We have to dress ourselves in love, compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility and patience so we can show the love of Christ to others. For example, if you were to get dressed to go work out, you would not wear high heels and a dress or cowboy boots and coveralls. You have to dress yourself according to your purpose. And the purpose of our faith is share the love of Christ with the world and we have to dress ourselves with these things in order to accomplish this goal.
Step three: find someone who can help keep you accountable. It takes humility to acknowledge that it is difficult for you to accomplish your goals without the help of someone else but it is necessary. This is the very reason that so many programs have mentors or supervisors because they are in place to help you accomplish your goals. Again, the same holds true for our faith. If you have a friend or family member in which you can confide in then I encourage you to seek them out. But it has to be someone who is strong enough to say something to you when you are struggling. It is easy to pat someone on the back when they are doing great things but it is much harder to help someone when they are struggling. I have found friends that I can go to and seek advice and guidance but they are also willing to tell me when I could do something better and that is important. We all need someone who can keep us accountable.
The final step I did not mention early in my example of new years resolutions because it is something we often forget that we can do. Step four: ask God for His help. Romans 8:26 tells us “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Again Paul knows that we can struggle to know what we are to pray for sometimes, we do not always know how to ask for the help we need. We could pray wordless groans and the spirit can interpret our prayers for us. No matter our resolution, whether it deals with our faith or not, do not be afraid to ask for God’s help. With the help of God we can accomplish anything. I have been doing a little research on personality types. I have discovered that I am an introvert which means that it takes a lot of energy for me to be up here. I am fairly uncomfortable in social settings and I am a little socially awkward. But why would God place me in a job where I am in front of people all the time and in a lot of social situations. I have discovered that this is part of God’s plan. See God uses our weaknesses to show others His strength so that way others know that the strength and skills they have are not of their own origin. They are from God’s. God has taken a socially awkward introvert and molded him into a pastor so others can see what happens when God’s power is at work. There are countless more examples of this sitting in the congregation today. Look at each one of your weaknesses, then take a closer look at where God has placed you. Everyday God places us in situations where we could not get through if we were trying to do it on our own. There are certain things that we could only accomplish with the help of God and uses that to show them His power.
With these four steps we can accomplish anything but once we have, today’s scripture reminds us to do it in the name of Jesus all the while giving thanks to God. It is easy to think that we have accomplished so much on our own but really we could not accomplish much without the help of God. In the upcoming year I encourage you set faith related goals that will bring you closer to God and I promise the results that you find will be better than you could have ever imagined. Before we set goals to grow our faith we first must enter into a living, breathing relationship with God. The only way to do this is to invite Christ into your heart. Maybe God has called you to make Fairview your home and if that is the case we would be more than happy to welcome you into our family. Amen
Comments
Post a Comment