Sermon - 2019-08-04
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Wow, I have so much stuff that I don’t know what to do with it?” Or perhaps a more likely scenario is, “I move things from one pile to another pile and I call that cleaning”. We are a people of stuff and this is nothing new. For hundreds of years, we have sought to have stuff that would surround us and it would be through these things that we would find security, safety, status, and even a reason for our existence. They could be your legacy.
We even have major holidays that carry with them, “Make sure everyone has a gift.” From Christmas to Valentine's Day, from the 4th of July to Halloween, we have stuff that will define the season to surround ourselves with the meaning and purpose of that season. Even our most Christian holidays are not immune, Easter is one that is specifically focused on the cross and the resurrection of new life. However, as time has drawn on, the focus has been on the candy, the gifts, and the receiving of stuff.
Now please do not misunderstand, I am not against the fanfare, what I am highlighting here is the new focus of the holiday from it’s intended purpose. The drifting of people from the focus of faith into the world of buying more earthly things. The fact that earthly things would be your legacy
Perhaps I should say this more clearly, in a modern-day context. Imagine if you will, someone who works year after year as a Janitor, cleaning up after others and ensuring that the place where they work, learn and live is clean and healthy. For fifty years, that Janitor works and saves. Coming to the end of his career, he looks to see that he has “enough” money saved that he feels he could retire from his labors and finally rest and do what it is he has wanted to do. At long last, he could study Scripture in order to discover how God is calling him to live his life and serve others around him. He could be a missionary to a people who are in need of the Gospel. However, the night before his final day. He has a heart attack and dies.
I share this with you because it could truly be anyone of us. Going about our day, so focused on what it is we want in the future, going through a routine, which is not a bad thing until we truly think of how it is we are working on it and what it is we are doing not for yourself but for the Kingdom of God. That we may realize the large barn or house that we have but then looking at others as though they have not done enough. Only to realize that when we depart this world, we do not take anything with us except our faith in God.
All of this comes back to the First Commandment, You shall have no other gods before me. As we serve our earthly possessions, as we surround ourselves with more and then need to care for them and maintain them, we are taking more and more time away from God, serving others and building this Kingdom of God. I stand here today but am guilty of this too. Purchasing things that then sit for months on end, that I have moved from one side of the country to another.
Today, I challenge you to look around ask, “Why?” Does this bring me life or help me in my life? Or is this a burden, holding me back from the life that I could be living.
We even have major holidays that carry with them, “Make sure everyone has a gift.” From Christmas to Valentine's Day, from the 4th of July to Halloween, we have stuff that will define the season to surround ourselves with the meaning and purpose of that season. Even our most Christian holidays are not immune, Easter is one that is specifically focused on the cross and the resurrection of new life. However, as time has drawn on, the focus has been on the candy, the gifts, and the receiving of stuff.
Now please do not misunderstand, I am not against the fanfare, what I am highlighting here is the new focus of the holiday from it’s intended purpose. The drifting of people from the focus of faith into the world of buying more earthly things. The fact that earthly things would be your legacy
Perhaps I should say this more clearly, in a modern-day context. Imagine if you will, someone who works year after year as a Janitor, cleaning up after others and ensuring that the place where they work, learn and live is clean and healthy. For fifty years, that Janitor works and saves. Coming to the end of his career, he looks to see that he has “enough” money saved that he feels he could retire from his labors and finally rest and do what it is he has wanted to do. At long last, he could study Scripture in order to discover how God is calling him to live his life and serve others around him. He could be a missionary to a people who are in need of the Gospel. However, the night before his final day. He has a heart attack and dies.
I share this with you because it could truly be anyone of us. Going about our day, so focused on what it is we want in the future, going through a routine, which is not a bad thing until we truly think of how it is we are working on it and what it is we are doing not for yourself but for the Kingdom of God. That we may realize the large barn or house that we have but then looking at others as though they have not done enough. Only to realize that when we depart this world, we do not take anything with us except our faith in God.
All of this comes back to the First Commandment, You shall have no other gods before me. As we serve our earthly possessions, as we surround ourselves with more and then need to care for them and maintain them, we are taking more and more time away from God, serving others and building this Kingdom of God. I stand here today but am guilty of this too. Purchasing things that then sit for months on end, that I have moved from one side of the country to another.
Today, I challenge you to look around ask, “Why?” Does this bring me life or help me in my life? Or is this a burden, holding me back from the life that I could be living.
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