Make Room in Your Life [part 1]

Making Room  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  33:02
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Making room in my life to listen and respond to the Holy Spirit means that I must declutter my life in order to make room.

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The last several weeks we have been looking into this idea of making room as a vision for the church. We are talking about making room to listen and respond to the Holy Spirit. We are talking about making room to cultivate relationships with other people. And we are talking about making room to nurture the wellbeing of our local community. Today I would like us to consider a necessary component of making room. And it is something which Jesus also talks about in the gospels.
Making room means there are things that have to get out of the way: declutter
I don’t watch much cable TV, but I have heard of this television show about extreme hoarders. You can find images from the show online which show houses that are so packed full of collected items that there is barely even space to walk from one room to the next. These are extreme examples of people who do not make room, but rather keep piling more and more into spaces that do not have enough room. In these cases, making room cannot happen by simply organizing stuff into neater more manageable piles; stuff just needs to get out of the house and be tossed. Making room means there are things that have to get out of the way. We have a word for that in our English language: declutter.
For us to be people who can have a faith that grows in discipleship, let’s take a step back today and consider what Jesus has to say about a life that is decluttered enough to make room for that kind of faith to thrive and flourish.
Matthew 6:19–33 (NIV)
Matthew 6:19–33 NIV
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
James 1:22 (NIV)
James 1:22 NIV
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
forms of hoarding: material hoarding — no room in my space for additional possessions
Hoarding can take all kinds of forms. It is not just material possessions that can be hoarded. But consider the implications. People who do hoard material possessions find it so much harder to be people of generosity. It is difficult to give away for others when there is such a temptation and habit to hang on to everything we can get our hands on. But before any of us brushes this aside because we do not consider ourselves to be hoarders of material possessions, think a little more deeply about other forms of hoarding we may have in our lives to varying degrees.
calendar hoarding — no room in my schedule for additional activities
Maybe for some of us it is calendar hoarding. You pack your calendar so full of activities that you want to do that there is not room in the day to give time for activities someone else wants to do. The past two years I have been working with a committee here at Fellowship Church with eight people on it. We have worked to find times when we could meet with some regularity. And it is astounding about the eight of us just how difficult it could be sometimes to find a day and time when all eight of us could get together. I am not throwing blame at the other seven here; I fully confess that I am just as much a part of that busyness as all the rest. Sometimes making room in my calendar means I need to declutter other events and activities which take up more of the space in my time than it should.
relationship hoarding — no room in my social circle for additional relationships
I wonder too if there might be such a thing as relationship hoarding. Being born and raised here in Grand Rapids, I admit it became rather easy when moving back into Michigan to immediately fill up my social circles with relationships—family, friends, ministry colleagues, etc. I am not the only one. I know that many of you have generational roots here in West Michigan with family and friends that go way back. Here is where this gets tricky because I don’t want to get in trouble for saying anything that could be misunderstood. Relationships are a good thing. There is nothing wrong with have a social circle that enriches your life with the blessing of community. And I am not saying you need to declutter your relationships by getting rid of some. The pastor says I need to get rid of some of my relationships, and you got the short straw, so buh-bye your out. That is not what I am saying. Here is what I am asking us to consider: is your social circle being monopolized to such a degree that it cannot allow space for any new relationships? Do I need to make room in my network of social connections for new relationships?
You see, hoarding can take many shapes in our lives. Let me draw attention, then, to what Jesus has to say in Matthew 6. There is one section in particular that I find intriguing, I think, because at first glance I wondered what it had to do with the rest of the passage.
Matthew 6:22–23 (NIV)
Matthew 6:22–23 NIV
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Greek aptous “healthy” = generous, single, simple, of singular purpose
Greek ponaros “unhealthy” = bad, vicious, hostile, corrupted
What in the world does this have to do with the rest of what Jesus is saying? Let me draw just a little bit of attention to some of the nuance happening in the Greek language of Matthew’s gospel. It is first the Greek word aptous which is translated in this verse as “healthy.” Aptous is a Greek word that can mean several things. It is also a word which is translated elsewhere as “generous.” Most often in New Testament it is translated as “single” or “simple.” It carries the meaning of having a singular purpose. Can I paraphrase in a way that connects it to our consideration? It means decluttered. A decluttered eye is full of light. Conversely in the next verse an unhealthy eye is full of darkness. Unhealthy is the Greek word ponaros which most often translates elsewhere in the New Testament as “bad.” But more particularly, it is bad in the sense of vicious, hostile, corrupted. I would interpret these words of Jesus to mean something like this. I cannot be a person of singular purpose if I allow my life to be cluttered by corrupting allegiances.
I cannot be a person of singular purpose if I allow my life to be cluttered by corrupting allegiances
a person cannot be a disciple who seeks the kingdom of God’s righteousness and be a person who is seeking other kingdoms at the same time
This makes sense given the surrounding context. Jesus says, by example, that a person cannot serve both God and money. But more broadly what Jesus is saying is that a person cannot be a disciple who seeks the kingdom of God’s righteousness and be a person who is seeking other kingdoms at the same time. A singular focus on inviting the Holy Spirit to renew my heart and change my life means that some decluttering has to happen. I need to make room in my life for this renewal to take place by doing the hard work of clearing out other allegiances that get in the way.
make room in my life for this renewal to take place by doing the hard work of clearing out other allegiances that get in the way
Let’s bring this to some practical application. What kind of decluttering needs to happen, and what does it look like to do that in your life? Maybe you have answers to that already. Maybe some of you here have already felt a conviction by the Holy Spirit of exactly what needs decluttering out of your soul in order to make room for faith that is being renewed into the image of Christ. If you are not sure where to start or how this begins, let’s keep tracking with the words of Jesus in this passage from Matthew 6.
Matthew 6:25 (NIV)
Matthew 6:25 NIV
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
worry infiltrates our hearts and clutters our souls
Worry. How often it is the case that certain anxieties we return to and dwell upon again and again infiltrate our hearts and clutter our souls. I think we should contextualize this example from Jesus a bit into our own time in order for us to really pull through the intended application of these words. Jesus lived in a time when people would very much live upon immediate sustenance. The supply chain of food could instantly turn on a dime depending on a dry growing season or a horrendous hailstorm or locust infestation. Such a thing would result in people going hungry and starving. Jesus is pulling at examples which would immediately connect and be relatable within his audience here in Matthew’s gospel. Let’s be honest; there are people right here in Grandville who struggle to get enough food to eat. But let’s also be honest that our society here in Grandville has sources to meet that need—food pantries, school lunch assistance, vouchers, etc. Yes, there are hungry people here in Grandville, but no one is starving to death because there simply is no food supply to be found. Beyond that, I dare say the vast majority of us in Grandville have only ever known homes with full pantries, full refrigerators, and full cupboards. Perhaps this means the examples given here by Jesus in Matthew 6 don’t track well with our own real-life experiences.
what are the worries in life that I allow to endlessly fill my anxieties?
In order for this passage to make sense, it is worth noting some of the things in life that do cause us to perpetually worry. We tend not to be people who spend time worrying about what we will eat or what we will wear. But these words of Jesus still apply for us. We simply need some reflective time to list out the things in life that we allow to endlessly fill our anxieties. Maybe it is worrying over chronic illness or declining health. Maybe it is anxiety about finances and worry if you have enough retirement savings. Maybe it is worry about friendships at school and anxiety about other students you struggle to get along with. Maybe it is worry about partisan politics, a sense of anxiety and dread if the candidate you don’t like ends up winning an election—and we could split this room down the middle with which candidate that may be.
do not allow worries to become kingdom allegiances that clutter my soul
Now then, none of this is to say that we totally ignore these things. Ceasing worry about what to eat does not mean we get rid of farms and stop growing crops. Ceasing to worry about retirement savings does not mean we cash out the IRA account and stop planning for the future. Ceasing to worry about partisan politics does not mean we abandon opportunities to be involved citizens on our society. What it does mean is that I do not allow these issues to become kingdom allegiances that clutter my soul.
declutter my soul of all that gets in the way of this one singular focus—to have a life that is being renewed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ
Instead, I want a soul that makes room for the Holy Spirit to renew my heart and shape my life to be conformed to the image of Christ. I want a soul that is centered on being a follower of Jesus, a disciple of Christ who reflects God’s love. I want a soul that orients my life towards inviting the Holy Spirit to produce the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control through the way that I live. I want to declutter my soul of all that gets in the way of this one singular focus—to have a life that is being renewed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ.
Or to frame it in the words of Jesus, I want to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the other things God knows I need in life will be given as well.
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