Jesus Changes our Rhythm

Jesus Changes Everything

Jesus Changes our Rhythm

Genesis 1:31 – 2:3

JCE

Good morning and welcome to worship on this amazing day that the Lord has made! God’s mercies are new every day, Amen!

Reeves Family Photo

I wanted to share with you a little about what has been happening. You know, some times we baptize from the font here in the Sanctuary, we’ve even been know to baptize by emersion here in the sanctuary and in Common Ground. But every now and then, we go back to nature.

Baptism Picture

This past Sunday afternoon, we celebrated the Baptism and reaffirmation of Baptism for Logan and Brad Reeves. Last April we celebrated the Baptism of Braylee as well. It is great to see God doing such an amazing work in the life of this family.

That’s not all the greatness of our God that we are seeing right now…

JCE

Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing with you some more information about travel and mission opportunities for you through First Methodist Church. Some of you may want to travel to the Holy Land, or on a mission trip to Mexico, Jamaica, Bulgaria, or Costa Rica. Some of you may not be interested in traveling, but you want to support the mission and ministry of those who are going. These are wonderful opportunities to both grow your relationship and understanding with God as well as reach out and share in ministry with those around the world. So, be watching your email for more information on these upcoming projects.

Who knows, maybe you will be changed because… what do we say around here,

Jesus Changes Everything

Paul reminded us in 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

When we give control of our lives over to Jesus, he will change everything about us. We talked about our Hearts – how Jesus changes our heart. If you remember, we weren’t talking about the blood pump in the middle of our chest… when we read scripture and it says that our heart is changed, it is talking about the very center of our being, our soul if you will. Jesus changes our core, our center, our innermost being. Then last week we looked at how Jesus changes our mind.

When we give our lives over to God, Jesus changes the way we think, the way we see the world, the way we process information. I love the way Shaefer explained it in his sermon last week… My paraphrase from his message is this… Our heart is the center of our being, but it is our mind that filters the things of this world… it is our mind that controls what enters our heart, so we protect what passes through our mind because it affects the heart. I took it a little different direction as we considered how we see those around us… that when Jesus changes our mind, it changes the way we see and interact with those that we like and don’t like. I’ve had to deal with that… I’ve had to consider the ways that I see people that have disagreed with me, or that don’t like me, or that maybe I don’t like or maybe they have offended me. When Jesus changes our mind, it changes how we live in relationship with others… but relationships will be for next week.

Jesus Changes our Rhythm

We’ve looked at how Jesus changes the way we see things, the way we interact with others, now we are getting personal… we are talking about how Jesus changes our lives!

This week we are talking about how Jesus changes our Rhythm… the pattern of life we live in relationship with God and others. Often times, we try to control our rhythm, we try to control what is happening, and when our rhythm is off we can get frustrated.

This week’s video comes to us from Charlie, and it really helps us understand what happens when things are out of rhythm, Well, here’s Charlie…

Charlie Chaplin Video

Rhythm

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to get out of rhythm, does it? Those of you that remember that movie clip know that Charlie goes on to destroy the entire factory by interrupting the rhythm of the assembly line. Another option would have been the I Love Lucy chocolate factory episode. When they got out of rhythm, everything was affected.

But enough about Charlie Chaplin and I Love Lucy, Everything has a rhythm. The universe has a rhythm. The planets in our solar system have a rhythm. The earth has a rhythm. The seas have a rhythm. The four seasons have a rhythm. Our bodies have a rhythm. Our heart has a rhythm. Our lungs have a rhythm. God created everything with a rhythm.

A Rhythm is a repeating pattern of stresses, or of the presence or absence of sound. Morse code works by assigning different letters of the alphabet to different rhythms. Musical Rhythm is made up of sounds and silences. These sounds and silences are put together to form patterns of sounds, which are repeated to create a rhythm.

But, our lives have Rhythm as well. How we live out our faith has rhythm. Now, we really do have a video this week with a testimony about how a Christian rhythm impacts us, how – if we let him, Jesus changes our rhythm and with that Jesus changes everything!

Alex Video

Rhythm

Turn with me in your Bible’s to Genesis 1. Even in the stories of creation, there is a rhythm. It was that rhythm that God used to bring order from chaos. It was that rhythm that God used to breathe life into humanity. And then, we find verse 31.

Genesis 1:31-2:3 (NLT)

Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

<PRAYER>

rHYTHM

Even in the story of Creation, we find the rhythm of life we are to live. God worked 6 days and then rested… a day of rest is a God ordained rhythm in our lives. Unfortunately, we get too busy and forget to pause in life, we let our spiritual patterns get off.

In her amazing Spiritual Disciplines Devotional, Valarie Hess reminds us:

“Spiritual formation simply means developing the holy habits of the Christian faith. These habits are also referred to as the spiritual disciplines. Habits are important because they are the things that carry us through life in all of its seasons. We do certain things every day – like brushing our teeth or combing our hair – regardless of what mood we are in. Often we do them without conscious thought because they are so ingrained in us. We do them because we know they are important and we usually feel better for having done them… Look at it this way: in any relationship there must be active engagement on both sides. Each person in the relationship needs to respond to the other person appropriately, to anticipate needs and wants and to be sensitive and encouraging to the other person.

[the spiritual disciplines are a response to God’s initiative in our relationship.] These habits, or tools, teach us to respond to God and to the people around us in ways that look more like the ways Jesus responded during his life on earth.”

So, with all that said, let me ask, what is the rhythm of your faith journey? The Spiritual Disciplines, like these things listed in the insert that has been shared with you, aren’t intended to be just one more thing added to your long list of things to get done every day.

I grew up with a little blue notebook that had daily check lists in it.

Did I pray today? √

Did I read my Bible? √

Did I read my devotional? √

Did I talk to someone about Jesus? √

It was a literal checklist for my faith. If I did good all week, and completed the checklist then I got a gold star or something… some kind of recognition before the rest of the youth group. I think the goal of my church and youth director was to help create these patterns, these rhythms of the faith, but what it became was just one more thing to do. It was directed and required by someone else, it didn’t come from my relationship with God, it came from my obligation to the group… and to not look back in front of the others in the Youth Group.

Here’s the thing. If your prayer life, or reading a devotional, or reading scripture becomes something that drains you instead of fills you, then you need to look for something else, some other way to spend time with God. The time you spend with God shouldn’t be a chore, it should be more about spending time with one who loves you and gave himself for you. That is the goal of building rhythm into our lives. It doesn’t usually feel like a chore to brush your teeth or comb your hair, at least I hope it doesn’t.

We were designed, we were created to live a pattern of life, a rhythm. We live best when we are in rhythm. We are most at peace when we are living within the patterns we were created for. You will live a rhythm, you will live a pattern in life. The thing is, you can either pick your patterns, you can pick your rhythm or a rhythm will pick you.

And that rhythm that is often selected for us looks more like the Charlie Chaplin video we saw than the way of life we want to live.

Can I be honest with you? I have been struggling with my rhythm lately. This sermon was a hard one for me. I can point to a lot of things, but the main reason for my lack of regular pattern in my spiritual walk is myself.

It has even affected my giving.

Yes, our regular giving is a part of the spiritual rhythm that we should be practicing. When we get out of the habit, when we get out of the practice of giving it throws our finances off.

When we get out of the habit of reading scripture, it affects our life beyond our spiritual walk.

When we get out of the habit of praying, it affects our life beyond our spiritual walk.

And, when we get out of the habit of exercise, it affects our life beyond our spiritual walk.

You see, we are tripartite beings. That’s a fancy word for the fact that we are made of body, mind, and soul. We are physical, intellectual, and spiritual. What we do in one area affects the other area. That’s why we see so often that Jesus takes care of his Spirit.

Luke 3:21 – While Jesus was praying the heavens were opened

Luke 5:16 – Jesus went out to the Wilderness to pray

Luke 6:12 – Jesus went off to the mountain to pray

Luke 11:1 – Jesus was praying in a certain place and the disciples came to him

Luke 22:32 – Jesus said, “I have prayed for you”

And that’s just a few of the passages from Luke’s gospel.

And, when we follow Jesus pattern, Jesus’ rhythm, we begin to change. As we follow the life Jesus taught us, it changes our rhythm. It changes the way we give of our finances. It changes the way we pattern our daily lives… I guess I could say, it changes everything. Today, we are going to start that change by gathering for Holy Communion.