A Peaceful Heart

Children’s Sermon

Sucker analogy - old commercial about Tootsie Roll pop…how many licks does it take to get to the center? We’ll never know if we take a shortcut of biting! To enjoy the sucker to the fullest, you ABIDE with the sucker. Have patience. Slow down.

Scripture

1 John 3:18-24 - Dear children, let ‘s not just talk about love with words and speech but practice it with truth and action. This is how we’ll know that truth fuels our living and how our hearts will be reassured by God. When internal doubts and criticisms assail our hearts, God knows and he is greater! When God assures our hearts, and our internal troubles cease, we’re free to keep God’s commandments and do things that please him. God’s command is to believe in the name of Jesus, his Son, and love one another as he first commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments will abide in him, and he in them. This is the way to experience God’s deep and abiding presence in us, through the Spirit he has given us.

Engage

Do you have a nursing home faith with God or an airport faith with God? At an airport, if you’re meeting someone arriving, there are all kinds of hugs and emotions…maybe even signs, balloons, gifts. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of display at an airport. But it doesn’t happen very often. At a nursing home, especially with long-time residents, not so much happens. There’s a lot of time sitting, often without many words being exchanged. I used to visit a man named Clinton before he died…he didn’t say much in the last part of his life. I was about halfway through a book I was reading him when he died. Abiding with God is more about presence, just showing up than it is about showiness…or flash.

Encounter

In fact, friends, God doesn’t seem to move at the pace we often do. There’s a clue in Genesis 3:8…Adam & Eve hear God walking through the garden. Not hurrying, not running, simply walking. In the words of Rich Villodas, who I’ll talk more about in a minute, sometimes we have to slow down to catch up to God! I can say for myself and for many in our culture that slowing down is difficult. How can I slow down when there is so much to do? We all should be more intentional about this. Not just because God said so, though he did, but because God DOES so…and because great spiritual fruit comes when we do.

The way to a peaceful marriage, family, workplace, and world starts with the peaceful individual. The most peaceful individual is one who abides with Jesus. What kinds of fruit can we see in a peaceful individual? For one, much less anxiety. Someone who looks for the best in people. Someone who forgives. Someone who is generous with acts of service and charity, whether the recipients “deserve” it or not but not to the point of burning themselves out. Someone who is strong…but peaceful. Someone who isn’t afraid to take a stand against evil, while also not imposing their will through violence or coercion.

The peaceful individual is NOT without struggles, internal or external. But their abiding with Jesus has cultivated an assurance, a trust, in God’s goodness and in Jesus’ reign. They’ve seen prayers answered, they’ve known times when events could only be explained by acts of God. As John says, acting our faith builds our vault of assurance that will hold against any internal or external assault.

How do we cultivate a deeply formed life? There are many books available, starting with the Bible of course. Here’s a book I will be reading before too long: PICTURE OF BOOK. I haven’t even read it yet, though I had the pleasure of hearing a summary at a pre-conference at New Room a few weeks back. I NEED to read it. Rich is the pastor of New Life Fellowship Brooklyn, a many nation church. Over 100 countries are represented in his attendance. I count myself as deeply blessed to have been exposed to him. What are some things he recommends to better abide with God / Jesus?

First, setting up contemplative rhythms in life. Again, slowing down. Spending time, even just a day or two, silent in nature or at a quiet retreat of some kind. Normalizing boredom. Reframing distractions and not beating ourselves up for them. Spending time in silent prayer. Simply listening. Prayer, he reminded me, is not a practice we master…but an act that forms us. Another pastor friend of mine once said…prayer is the act that lets our heart breathe. We don’t have to have a goal to meet with God, he’s not a taskmaster. He’s always waiting for us with open arms. Always.

Also, observing Sabbath, as we’re designed and commanded to do, is a huge help in abiding with God / Jesus. We’re bad at this. I feel like I’m ok at it, but ok isn’t really an option. Sabbath means ceasing paid and unpaid work. For some, perhaps it’s not an option. But for many, it is. Sabbath is designed as a GIFT for us, not a task. A gift that lets us stop, rest, delight, contemplate.

Also, Rich recommends spending quality time on interior examination. Of ourselves, that is. Rich, and his predecessor, are expert practitioners of family systems theory…another love of mine. Interior examination helps lower anxiety. It helps stop chaotic rhythms in our lives. It helps us be in God for the world, not in the world for God! One way of doing this is checking in with yourself using some basic questions:

What am I mad about?

What am I sad about?

What am I anxious about?

What am I glad about?

Journaling alongside this helps as well...

Also, another practice is using the reaction inventory. When you have a difficult, unusual, or hard to figure out something happen…ask these questions (Any recent examples I can think of)?

What happened?

What am I feeling?

What story am I telling myself?

What does the gospel say?

What counter-intuitive act might I need to move toward?

Empower

All of this should drive us to LOVE better. That is the goal. We’re pretty good at tolerating in our world, for the most part, but not nearly as good at truly loving. If your’e like me, you can probably make a long list of people you can tolerate but, if honest, you couldn’t say you really loved. And, as the Scripture says, love is ultimately defined by action. When you’re with your kids, or your family, do you just tolerate them? Do you ever say, “Boy, words can’t even contain how much I tolerate you!” I hope not…Jesus doesn’t just tolerate us, he LOVES us. He has shown it, he does show it, and he will show it. Will you accept it as the radical free gift that it is…even though none of us deserve it?

Rich used an analogy that I’ve returned to often since. It involves tea…(DEMONSTRATE THIS). Are you a dipper or do you let it sit there? Too often we approach God as dippers. We dip ourselves in prayer, we dip ourselves in contemplation once in awhile, we dip into the practice of Sabbath. But when you let the tea bag sit there…for a good long while, the composition of the water really changes and grows more and more like the tea. If we’ll soak ourselves more in the presence of Jesus rather than just dipping here or there, we’ll find the change within us and around us is more profound…just as God designed.

Pray...