The last two sermons I heard for the year both had the phrase “Go for it” in them. It was not a coincidence as the second took it right from the first. The lessons both revolved around how to prepare for a better you in the coming year. The details are very different, but the common view of “Do not let the past encumber you” is one I generally identify with, but with this piece I am wrapping the change of year up in “How to Launch Along the Lead”. Step one: sort the laundry.
The first sermon was by our main pastor and revolved around a bucket list. I have never made a bucket list. It always seemed so worldly and sinful a task that I avoided it. Obviously, there are spiritual things to do here on earth, but I never put them into a “bucket list” context before. I do remember the phrase: “God put me on the earth for a number of things to do and I am so far behind I will never die.” It is comical, but I am sure it does not work that way. If I had a bucket list, the only real one left would be to see the little kid baptized, and that is in the preparation stage now. The pastor noted the spiritual bucket list to be to “Fulfill God’s Purposes for Your Life” and defined it as a legacy. Our old Sunday school Class was named Legacy and was founded on bringing up our children in a proper manner. We were in the class eight years, and I feel a shift in how this will be accomplished going forward (especially since the girls are 8 years older).
Another concept in the sermon was to adjust your treatment of your personal history. He tells us not to regret where you were. We are not to regret having grown up poor or rich, Christian or non-Christian. We are to reflect on how far we have come spiritually. The phrase he used was “God writes comeback stories.” The emphasis is how far God has brought us.
Application steps from this reflection are three-fold (of course from a Baptist sermon).
- For those things you would wish you would not have done – Forgive yourself. God has and now you need to (if you have not).
- For those things you wish you would have done – Give yourself permission to move on. You cannot change it, so leave it in the past.
- For those things you wish you would do – Go for it. The old ideas you did not perform or the new ideas you will have, use your past to strengthen you to do them going forward. If you did not pray yesterday, forget about it, and pray today.
As the sermon wrapped up, it included a how to do number three in four easy steps. (Humor)
- Know and Serve the Lord
- Be Strong and Courageous
- Keep a Whole Heart
- Get Wisdom and Insight
The second sermon was from our campus pastor and revolved around an idea he called “Make Room for the Pause”, but I liked “Listen and Linger” better. Other clichés that I wrote included “Celebrate, but don’t Stagnate” and “Share the Light”. This lesson had four steps:
- Be Hopeful – Out of the gap between the last minor prophet and John the Baptist came the fulfillment of the hope for the Messiah. Immanuel – God with us. With Him living in us, we can be a beacon of hope.
- Be intentional – Do not be an Eore letting the world happen to you, be a Tigger happening to the world. Whether it is funds, food, fun, exercise, being polite, less bad language, more encouraging language, investing in relationships, asking for forgiveness, or giving to those around you, now is the time to have an impact. So, pick the way you want to be ‘the church” and do it intentionally.
- Pace Yourself – One of the failures of each new year is people trying to do too much. The idea here is to make sure you pick a schedule, pick a pace, keep some margin in it, and allow yourself a bunch of S’s: Solitude, Silence, Sabbath, Simplify, and Slow Down. If you are so busy “doing” that you do not have time to listen to God (and to linger in the opportunities He gives you), you will not be fulfilling His purpose for you.
- Be Holy Spirit Led – I missed a reference, but the notes I wrote jumped to a three-question set to test if we are following the Holy Spirit. a) am I worshipping, b) does God speak to me, and c) am I listening? The implication is that if you are worshipping, then God is speaking to you, and you need to listen.
To further this point, the sermon wrapped up with four ways we can listen to God:
- Read His Word, and Listen
- Pray with Him, and Listen
- Fellowship with People, and Listen
- Review your Circumstances, and Listen
God has created many wonderful things for us to accomplish, but their goal is to give Him glory. If that is our goal, then He will give us the ideas of what to do, the power to do them, and then we just have to “Go for it.”