Backtrack to get on Track

GPS has destroyed my ability to remember directions. I used to be able to drive a route one time and easily find my way afterwards. I had a pretty good sense of direction and confidence that I knew just how to get where I was going even if I had never traveled that way before.

GPS has changed all of that. GPS make it possible for us to get to where we’re going and still be lost.

Not knowing how we got where we were and totally dependent on a cellular signal to get us home.

GPS gets us where we are going......but what would happen if we lost GPS signal? Or what if that GPS info has not been updated?

it happens....it happened to me.

When GPS just started becoming mainstream they used to have to be updated regularly and to be honest they were not always updated enough…one day I was headed to a meeting in Springfield Mo and I plugged in the address and started off....I got to a confusing spot and the GPS told me to get off the highway (Which Seemed Odd) and then it directed me back on the same highway in the opposite direction…Odd but oh well GPS knows....then it RECALCULATED and took my off the highway and put me back on going the original direction...

I am embarrassed to say that the GPS did this to me 3 more times and it was not until the third time I finally realized I was going in circles that I changed my method of getting where I needed to go. (NOT MY PROUDEST MOMENT)

If I had paid attention to my route during the first failed loop…I probably would have learned that I was never going to get where I was going taking that route.

What happens when our Internal GPS is wrong? What happens when we find ourselves in a cycle that we just can’t seem to get out of?

Maybe we are continually passed over for a promotion, Or We find ourselves in yet another failed relationship, Or we are yet again misunderstood by those we love.

Or we are dealing with emotional and spiritual doubt that just keeps us in a state of uneasiness?

I don’t know one person that wants continue in cycles that lead us to disappointing results. However many of us are in fact stuck even with our desperate desire to turn things around.

We often continue mindlessly following the path we’re are on.... We continue for a variety of reasons:

We don’t know what to change, or we know what to change but we worry about how people will view the change. Or we fail to pay attention to repeated bad decisions that lead us to the same disappointing outcomes.

Whatever the reason this is why our desired turnaround is often out or reach.

Mindlessly following a path without paying attention to how we arrived where we are…always leads us to the same disappointing destinations..

If we do not examine how we arrived to where we are we will always achieve the same disappointing results.

Last week we learned that The First Step of your Turnaround starts with You…This week we are going to take the second step of a turnaround …Which is in order to understand where we are we must understand how we got there.

Jonah chapter 2 .

“1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. 2 He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me! 3 You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.

Have you ever been there…in moments where you were involuntarily isolated from everyone and everything. Jonah had been tossed into a raging sea:

Jonah was in a place physically, emotionally and spiritually disconnected from everything and everyone but God.

While this was not ideal it provided Jonah the needed isolation to review his calling and life choices that got him in this mess.

“4 Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’ 5 “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. 6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!

Jonah thought God had done this a punishment. He was at the point of death. Separated from God at least in his mind but toward the end of this passage Jonah begins to see that in the moment it seemed God had forsaken him God was right there with Jonah.

God had done this not as a punishment but as a gift.

Jonah’s time in the sea is akin to those near death moments we hear about where our lives flash before our eyes.

In these moments God brings Clarity to our situations and our lives in General.

7 As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple. 8 Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies. 9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.” 10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.”

God provided complete isolation for Jonah to remember what his role really was in God’s desire to save the Ninevites.

In the complete isolation God had provided.......Jonah remembered the Lord…Jonah would never have understood how far from God He was had he not been forced to review the events of his life that got him in the belly of the Fish.

Maybe you find yourself in a Jonah moment right now. Not because you are intentionally running from God (Maybe you are) but becuase you have not intentionally reviewed the route you took to get where you are.

Even though the near death moment is what it took to get Jonah to a place of obedience…this does not have to be the case for us. We can voluntarily take moments of isolation from the world to achieve the same results.

When we are in intentional moments of solitude reviewing out life whether it be for our Spiritual lives, Marriage relationships, Professional lives or you emotional state we are able to:

Intentionally update your life’s GPS

Updating our internal GPS does not happen by accident…And no one else can do it.

Just like admitting our turnaround starts with me (LONG PAUSE)

Taking time to understand how we have gotten where we are is a scary proposition because if we see the wrong turns we have taken, or the attitudes that keep us from a turnaround it puts us in a place of decision.

Do we double down on what has done nothing but created hurt, confusion and distress. Or do we let those things go and trust the leading of the Holy Spirit?

Maybe today you are at the end of your rope and while not in the belly of the beast so to speak…you are just as lost…but wanting desperately to turn it around. …

What practical thing can I do to Turn things around?

Schedule a time for the purpose of allowing God to help you Intentionally review your actions.

The simple truth is if you do not schedule a time do review your life it will not happen!

Intentional time allowing the Holy Spirit to help us review our days, months and years leads God’s long desire Turnaround for our lives.

It is much healthier to voluntarily isolate yourself from everything but God than it is to allow our pride or negligence to lead us to a more painful forced isolation.

Lets take some time to start this Journey. James

When we take these times to review our journey God helps solidify our foundations in God’s instruction. God will not leave us looking for our safety on our own…God will honor our attempts at hearing form Him.

For this time you might want to come to the Altar…You may want to make your seat an altar by turning a kneeling at it…You may just want to sit with your eyes closed imagining that you are the only person in a space that makes it easy for you to hear from God.

Invite Holy Spirit to manifest himself to you in this moment. Give thanks to God for His presence in our lives in general but for his special presence now.

Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind all the decisions that have energized you this past week. Be thankful

Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind all the decision that have drained you this past week...ask God to show you how to make it different tomorrow.

If you have the ability now Write down 1 or 2 practical changes that will lead you to the place you want to be....If not now write them down when you get home.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will remind you of your changes tomorrow.

Now let us come to the Table together. Open Communion announcement…directions for Communion.

Doug…Come and lead us in Communion together.