Keep Showing Up
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
In high school like a sponge
Scripture memory Gal 2:20, 2 Corinth 5:17
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
I had fully embraced a new life in Christ and held on to this verse as a promise that I had truly started a new life and my old life - with all of my sins and mistakes I had commited was gone.
Something to know about me is that I am not naturally a morning person. Over the years I have learned how to rally when I need too for meetings or work, even though it takes me a bit to get going.
Well when I was in High School I did not have this get up and go naturally. I believe God in his wisdom and in his humor creates moments in time to show he is at work.
Part of Young Life when I was in high school was a bible study called campaigners. My leader decided to have this meeting at 630 am on Wednesday. One early Wednesday morning to the shock and surprise of my Mom (who usually had to use a spray bottle of water to get me out of bed after multiple attempts to tell me to get up) I was up and ready to be picked up by a YL friend.
One of the first mornings I went, I remember plopping my bible open randomly (which I found was common among many who are not sure where in the Bible to read) and it landed on this verse.
Ephesians 5:14 (CSB)
For what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
In those early days I was so thankful to be on a healthy spiritual, emotional, and physical path that I lived in utter dependence on God.
But like some of you may relate, at some point for me my performance-based acceptance begins to set in.
There were a few things creating this environment for me:
First of all I was and still am extremely competitive.
Second, reflecting back on my early childhood, I was surrounded by those who wanted me to reach my full potential, but it often felt like I had to be perfect.
Then in my late teens through my early working years, in my late 20s I was surrounded by those who expected perfection without cultivating the space to make mistakes and learn from them.
And on top of that I was naturally a people pleaser.
Grades, performance reviews, seeking promotions, career mobility.
At some point I let this perfection philosophy sink into my heart.
It messed me up as I looked at my relationships especially with God through a lens of my activity and performance.
Did I spend the right amount of time with God, do the right amount spiritual activity, say the right things to get God's attention.
Treating Him like one of my perfection expecting bosses.
Leaves me trying to get it right in connecting with God and what does that even look like.
This left me frustrated, ashamed, and depressed.
This left me with guilt for me not living a certain way and no clear path to "get back on track."
All this left me distant from God.
I am guessing I'm not the only one here today who has experience some of this in their life journey.
Today I would like to take us on a journey through scripture to understand what God says about what it looks like to live a life of vibrant faith not dependent on our performance but just on us Keep Showing Up.
John 15:1–8 (CSB)
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.
The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
[Break down the verse]
[He is the vine we are the branches]
Think about the simplicity of Jesus’ metaphor. He is having his audience (us today) consider the reality that it is impossible for a branch of a vine to bear fruit if it is disconnected from its source (the vine).
Pretty simple the branch draws all of its nutrients, water and vitality from the vine which is drawing everything from the ground.
Jesus is our vine, our very source of life…who is able to restore our souls and allow us to bear fruit.
[Prunes every branch that produces fruit]
Painful process at times, but in the master gardeners hand the pruning is productive not destructive.
[already clean because of the word i have spoken to you]
Notice how this verse validates the reality that those who have accepted Jesus’ word into their lives aren’t striving to be clean, but they are already right with God by the act of accepting the truth into their lives.
[Remain in me]
Remain in me: comes from the greek word Meno and can refer to dwelling, living, or lodging. It is a picture of God inviting us into his home, to dwell with him and experience his hospitality…to experience the fulness of the fruit of who he is to flow to us and through us.
[You can do nothing without me]
Completely debunks the theory that we can perform our way to God.
Bible doesn’t say Jesus + our works save us. It says Jesus saves us and this salvation is reflected by the fruit in our lives as we remain in him.
[My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.]
δοξάζω (doxazō). vb. to glorify, exalt, praise
[The second sense captures how a person’s deeds or entire life can “glorify” God when carried out with love in obedience to the will of God; that is, one’s actions, in themselves, can be said to glorify God when they are guided by his will and carried out in order to please him John 15:8]
So the picture here is of a God who is allowing his fruit, his character to flow to us, then through us.
Galatians 5:22–23 (CSB)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
God’s Character - So we can believe that he never gives up on us but is constantly welcoming us back without getting angry at us when we don’t get it right.
Psalm 86:15 (CSB)
But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth.
Shows up 11 times in the bible
Quick check for all of us, how does our current perception or conclusion about God match up with what the truth of this verse says about Him?
How about this next verse about God’s daily activity toward us?
Lamentations 3:22–23 (CSB)
Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!
Or this one?
Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Let’s just pause for a moment and reflect on the central truth of the gospel, of the bible, of the reality of life.
God is fully aware of mankind’s condition of sin. That we as humans natural do what is best for us, putting ourselves in the center of our universe, making decisions that benefit us at the expense of others.
We daily break trust with people we love, not fully considering our actions and the damage it will cause.
This is exactly why God planned the ultimate rescue for us. Knowing that we have all gone astray like sheep, he sent the perfect shepherd to not only show the way back home, but to sacrifice himself to create a pathway of forgiveness, re-connection with the creator of our souls.
We are helpless to obtain a right relationship with God through our own actions.
Much of the new testament focuses on this reality.
That is, it is not through us being good enough or doing enough good deeds that reconciles us with God, it is only by the perfect life and sacrifice of Jesus that we are made right with God.
You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing? So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard—just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness?
Somehow in my life I have created a belief that somehow God required me to perform a certain way for me to be connected and right with him.
Especially these past few months for me I have realized that it is all about staying connected to the source of my salvation, my life, my strength, my purpose and my hope....and on a daily basis.
For all of us today it is critical that we look in on the truth that this faith journey isn’t about us waving down God to get his attention through our positive performance, but to show up daily and connect to the source of all life…Jesus
Give us today our daily bread.
Matthew 6 is connected back to Exodus 16 when the Israelites were in the wilderness and God was providing them bread each morning. Except for for the day before sabbath the bread only lasted one day [no preservatives]. In some cases the people didn’t listen and hey tried to save it for the next day but it bred worms and stank. It wasn’t just about the bread, the bread was God’s provision and it only lasting one day was a function of God calling his people to have daily faith in him that he would provide exactly what they needed, if they let him.
This walk of faith is not religion, it is a relationship with a loving, gracious God who wants us do depend on him daily for everything we need to life this life to the fullest.
Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.
Some of you today might feel like you are stuck in a hamster wheel, you life is spinning around but you don’t feel like you are going anywhere.
Or maybe you feel like the weight of the world is on you and everything depends on you.
Today God is inviting you to reset and re-connection with him.
May these last two verses encourage you.
Isaiah 43:18–19 (CSB)
“Do not remember the past events; pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
Matthew 11:28–29 (CSB)
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
So this morning if you are feeling disconnected from God
Keep showing up
So this morning if you are feeling like you have lost hope.
Keep showing up
So this morning if you are weighed down with life’s worries.
Keep showing up
So this morning if you are feeling like you haven’t done enough.
Keep showing up
So this morning if you are feeling [fill in the blank]
Keep showing up
Matthew 6:9–13
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen”
