Untitled Sermon

Renew Your Life - 1

Grace to you and peace…

We are beginning a sermon series

entitled “Renew Your Life”

based on the book by Kai Nilson

Of the same title

the focus of our time together

Is the introduction of that book.

It begins with an account

that I - as a pastor - can relate to

A time in which

Kai - a pastor - is ministering to a parishioner

he’s expected - in that moment

to be empathetic

as all pastors are expected to be…empathetic

Fully present - with them

yet - by his own admission…

in that moment…

he felt nothing but emptiness

and thankfully - thankfully

- he was honest with himself…

In that moment

Honest enough to take steps

to put himself in a place

Where he could reflect on the emptiness

He was feeling

he went home..

and in his reflection

he realized there was a sense of emptiness

that characterized his life over all

- at this point in time

I’d like to point out something

That isn’t in the book

But is a crucial ingredient

In renewal

It is simply

Kai was willing to admit

First to himself

then ultimately - to others

After all - he wrote a book

He was was willing to admit

he had a problem

he didn’t have it all together

One of the things that can suck

the life right out out of us

Is the lie

that we must have it

all together

That we must be...

All together

All the time...

Kai didn’t use this verse

But as i was reading his account

I was reminded of a passage from I peter

That was just read

Part of that verse is...

Your adversary

The devil

Prowls around

Looking for someone to devour

One of the problems we face

In a quest to renew our lives

Is the way we so often hedge..

It’s an expectation

That we should ignore

The prowling around

Of the evil one

We’re supposed to pretend

that threats

That are very real

And are very present

And can suck the life

out of each of us

We’re supposed to pretend

Those threats aren’t there

We’re supposed to put out there...

That we aren’t threatned

And yet - we are...

And especially this time of the year

When our thoughts turn to what we COULD be

What we SHOULD be..

We should weight less

We should exercised more in our lives

We should be diligent about this thing

Move caring about that relationship

All of which may be true...

But have a danger in them

If we think that they - alone

Will bring a better life... will bring renewal

If we can just stick to THIS YEAR’S

new year’s resolution...

Instead we need to draw upon the Holy Spirit

As the source of true renewal

We need a moment - like Kai experienced

Where we say

God - I’m not all right

GOd - I have made a mess of my life

God - I do not have within myself ...

..the energy I need

To live the renewed life, that you want for me

For God does want you to live a renewed life

Make no mistake about it...

the writer of first Peter puts it this way:

the God of all grace,

who has called you

to his eternal glory in Christ,

will himself restore,

support,

strengthen,

and establish you

To him be the power

forever and ever. Amen.

God’s power.

That is - what I believe

Kai … was searching for

and it’s what we want as well

This restoration...

The support

The strength... of the God of all grace

Now - Kai found renewal

As he turned to the creation story

For sources of energy that are divinely established

Which is an appropriate a place

For us to turn as well

Because one of the great mysteries

That physicists have learned about creation

Is that it is all energy

One of the amazing things

That I’ve learned

from the physicists at Purdue

And I don’t want to begin

to pretend that i understand this

Is that all of the stuff of this world

Really isn’t so solid - as we think it is

It’s really energy

All the stuff of the universe

From suns and planets

To our world

To sub atomic particles

All of it....

If you removed the energy..

It would all fit within a thimble

What a mystery this is

What a miracle this is...

That scientific truth..

points us to a biblical truth...

That in the creation

Is a resource for us to draw on

In the quest for renewal in our lives

And we’re goin to walk

through the creation story

Throughout this preaching series...

But Having said that -

I’m not going to go into the creation story

That is for later weeks

From there pastor Nilsen goes on

To identify - what he calls - distortions

Distortions That would lead us away

from the path of renewal

That God has for us

Last week - i travelled down to SiouX Falls SD

My father was in the hospital there

And i felt i needed to get down to see him

It was right after the big snow storm came through here

And as I set out - I set my GPS

It gave me three options

Two of which went straight down through the heart

Of Minnesota

Which i knew was a mess

And one of the paths

Was over to the interstate

And then down the interstate

to Sioux Falls

my GPS informed me

This would take longer

But after that storm

I felt it was the safest route

It would have more attention of the plows

That’s the route I chose

I set out...

somewhere along the way

My GPS decided that it new a better way

It recalculated the path

down through the heart of Minnesota

Over 100% snow & ice covered

county roads and state highways

I didn’t pay attention to the road numbers

So - It took me a little while

to figure out -

i wasn’t going over to the interstate anymore

When i did figure it out..

I reset my gps

And again it gave me three different options

Two of which was to go through the heart of Minnesota

One of which was over to the interstate

I chose the interstate option again

And my GPS did it a second time

That happened a total of three times

On that journey

Where - i was - let astray

By my phone

What should have been a five hour drive

Ended up being a nearly 8 hours

And all of it - felt like i was driving

On one long overpass...the whole way

That i could slide off of .. at any time

Talk about energy depletion

I felt terrible when I arrived

Just like my trip to Sioux Falls...

Kai in his book

Talks about how we are led astray

By our culture

He identifies three different ways

That just like the recalculating of my GPS

lead us to unhealthy places

i won’t recount all of what he writes here

But he identifies one of those things

As the pace of life

This fast moving

Always coming at you

Pace of life

It seems like we never take time

to slow down

And take time

And I’ll just offer

That for many of us

that has to do with the screens in our lives

That bring us news

About every corner of the world - so quickly

And whenever someone calls...

Or writes us...

Or texts us...

Or instagrams us...

Or facebook messages us...

No matter where we are..

No matter what we’re doing

No matter what we’re trying to get away from

There....

...it...

...is...

Demanding our attention

...making our nights less restful

...making work for us -

long after the working day aught to be done

Sucking life

Right out from

Us

And we don’t see it

for what it is....

It is Your adversary

It is The devil

It is Prowling around

It is Looking for someone

—maybe you—

to devour

That’s one cultural distortion

He goes on to talk about others...

But I’ll leave it up to you -

To read about that...

The good news here

In all of this

Is that we do have a creative God

Who loves us

And who cares for us

And who desires for us

And yearns to be the energy

And Life giving presence

For us...

In this season of Epiphany...

May you embrace the truth God speaks

You need me

For life & for your renewal

May you draw from the energy -

that I have placed within part of creation

And may you