Live Worthy Lives

Below is a sermon I've written for the folks at Sweet Life, a nursing home/rehab center.  God revealed a message that I needed to hear.  Maybe you need to hear it, too.

Sweet Life

7/14/13

Colossians 1:1-14

Theme:  Live Worthy Lives; Be Encouragement to Others

Sometimes we just need to hear some good news.  Sometimes we need to hear the encouragement. 

As soon as we wake up in the morning, we are constantly faced with the brokenness of the world around us.  Flipping through the pages of the morning newspaper, we read stories of disappointment, defeat, and death.  Plane crash in San Francisco kills 3, injures several.  Grueling trials of the Zimmerman case.  Gun violence in the streets.

In our conversations with family and friends, we hear about failed marriages, lost jobs, runaway children.

Everyday we hear and see all the broken things in our world.  We can easily get caught up in that.  We can easily get stuck in that same brokenness.

As Christians, we can be really hard on ourselves.  We judge ourselves for how poorly we are living our lives.  We can easily see how ineffective we are as Christians. 

But sometimes we need to be reminded of what God has accomplished through our lives.  Because of the love and grace we have received from God, many good things have happened; others’ lives have been transformed; more people have come to know Christ; and perspectives have changed.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded of all the good things God is doing through us.

Sometimes what we really need is to hear the good news. 

Read Colossians 1:1-14

I find myself in a weird stage of trusting God in the midst of the good, but then doubting Him in the midst of the darkness.  I know I am not the only one stumbling around in this stage.  It’s easy to trust God when life is going well.  However, when something bad happens, it triggers a domino effect of distrust and doubt.

In my life, I seem to be on an endless roller coaster ride.  Somehow, with God’s strength, I will chug all the way to the top of the ride.  Suspended in mid air, time stops and I am able to really enjoy the view.  While clutching to the metal bar pressing into my waist, my body leans forward as I gaze across the horizon.  The horizon of possibilities.  The horizon of past accomplishments.  It feels great when you’re at the top.

But somehow, I can’t seem to steady myself.  The wheels start sliding back and forth.  While trying to stay as still as I can, the bucket seat slowly creeps forward.  I lean back as far as I can to keep it from moving, but I know my efforts aren’t going to stop what’s ahead of me.

There’s the deep slope into darkness.  I don’t know where it’s going to lead me.  I can’t see the bottom.  I just know it’s not going to be pretty.

Screaming all the way down, I can feel that top-of-the-roller-coaster cheer quickly escape my lungs.  Instantly, I’m filled with fear.  What am I doing here all the way at the bottom?  How did I get here?  What is going to happen next?

The bottom of the roller coaster ride isn’t fun.  For a moment, you feel stranded.  You have no momentum left and you’re convinced that you’ll never get back to the top of the coaster again.

But somehow, after trudging at the bottom, your wheels start moving back and forth.  Your bucket seat is inching its way forward.  Something is happening.  You’re moving forward.  Maybe there is light at the end of this tunnel.  You scoot forward little by little trying to nudge it along. 

All of a sudden, a great gust of wind sweeps underneath the tracks and your seat is throttled forward and upward.  The ride continues as you chug your way back up to the top.

Being Christians, sometimes our lives can feel like a roller coaster ride.  We have days where we’re standing on mountaintops, praising God for all He’s done.  Then we have days where we’re so overwhelmed with everything that is going wrong.

Maybe the people of Colossae experienced something similar.  At the time of writing this letter, Paul was excited to hear about their faith, that their relationship with Christ was growing, and that they were sharing the gospel with others. 

These people were living holy and faithful lives.  When you looked at them, you could see a beautiful representation of God’s people.  It sounds like they were steadying themselves on top of the roller coaster. 

But, I think, even the people of Colossae, had moments of trudging at the bottom of the ride.  You may not read words of despair in this passage, but being the humans they were, I think they had their days of doubt, distrust, brokenness.

But notice in this text that Paul doesn’t focus on what may be going wrong in their lives.  He’s focused on the good that God is doing through them.

That is a radically different perspective.  We have a hard time focusing solely on the good things that God is doing, especially when we’re surrounded by so much brokenness.  It’s easy to slip into the mindset of disappointment.  Not every day of our lives are we shouting thankfulness to God from the tops of the mountains.  Some days we just want to wallow in our own brokenness. 

But what if we allowed God to change our perspective?  Instead of focusing on the brokenness of our world and our lives, what if we focused on what good that God is doing in and through our lives?  What if we focused on how God was using us to touch the lives of others?  Would our lives be any different?

I would say so!  It may be hard to overcome our routines, but I would say that our lives would begin to look different, especially in our own eyes. 

Maybe we would no longer focus on how we messed up a conversation, and focus on how God is going to speak through us with grace.  Maybe we would no longer focus on our regrets, and focus on how God is redeeming us and others.  Maybe we would no longer focus on the brokenness of the world around us, and see how God is at work and join in on the efforts.

I believe that God can carry us to that point.  I believe that God can overcome our insecurities and help us to be the holy and faithful people he longs for us to be.

Maybe we can even become saints.  But first, what is a saint?  By definition, a saint is a person of great holiness, virtue, or benevolence.  For the people of Colossae, they consider Paul and Epaphras to be saints.  Why?  Because they were living holy and faithful lives; they served as an example of holiness to others.  They gave the Colossians encouragement to continue their relationship with Christ and sharing the gospel with others.

Who do we consider to be saints?  Some names come to mine like St. Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Teresa of Avila, Gregory the Great.

Why are these people important to us?  They are considered to be leaders of our faith.  Time and time again, we refer to the knowledge and wisdom of these great leaders.  The way they lived their lives is a source of encouragement for us.  God used them in incredible ways, and it teaches us of God’s great love for us.

Maybe the saints of your lives are family members, teachers and professors, friends, neighbors, nurses, therapists, companions.  God uses all kinds of people to encourage us in our faith.

We, too, can be saints.  As we grow in the knowledge of God, we bear fruit.  As we get to know God more, we can share that with others.  We can have great endurance and patience.  We give joy to the Father for what he has done and continues to do.  Even if we’re wavering through the bottom of the roller coaster and slowly inching our way forward, we can still be saints.  We can be that for others only through the grace of Jesus.  It is not something we can do on our own.  We allow ourselves to be so vulnerable to God that he uses our lives to share his love with others.  What an incredible honor.

Though we may feel like we are riding on a constant roller coaster, we can still grow in our trust.  We can trust God at the top and trust him at the very bottom.  We can grow in our relationship with God.  The more we trust God, the more we will grow in knowledge of God. 

I think that’s the key to this passage.  The way we can truly become encouragement to others is by trusting God in our own lives.  (Repeat!)

Do you think Paul got to where he was all by himself?  Do you think the people of Colossae earned this privilege all by themselves? 

I believe it took a considerable amount of trust in God before they became saints. 

Though our lives may look like roller coaster rides to us, they may actually be sources of strength, endurance, patience, and encouragement to others.  Through our ups and downs, God can use us to touch others’ lives. 

Isn’t it amazing how God works?  Even when we feel like we’re stuck at the bottom of the roller coaster with no foreseeable hope of climbing back up, God uses those moments to teach us something, and to show others his love. 

When I’m in need of radical faith, a few other Christians come to mind.  One in particular is the Boswith family.  They were really good friends of my parents when I was young.  They attended the same church in TN.  A few years ago, the wife was diagnosed with cancer.  She battled with it, her family supported her, and it seemed that she was doing better.  I believe she went into remission.  Then just over two years ago, their son got sick.  It was not a serious sickness at the time.  But a Dr. made a mistake and he got sicker.  He soon went into a coma where his body began to shut down.  Meanwhile, the wife’s cancer returned.  Just a year ago she passed away.  The son is now dependent on a wheelchair and several therapists; he is working with physical therapy and speech therapy.  He’s slowly making some progress, but not as much as we all hoped.  He’s only 21 years old. 

This family took a hard hit.  They were at the lowest low of the roller coaster.  It was and still is painful to hear about the stories.  It was gut wrenching to hear about the wife’s death on top of the declining health of the son.

But what remained the constant in their story was the faith of the father. 

He keeps a journal online about the progress of his son.  In this journal, he also includes his daily devotional.  In the past two years, I’ve read comments like: “Why did this happen, God?”  “I praise you for your love.” “I am praying for a miracle.”  “God, I want your will to happen.”

Even in the midst of such deep pain and sorrow, this man of faith still clung to his relationship with God.  He is openly struggling, but growing in endurance, patience, knowledge, and wisdom.  He is even reaching others who may never have heard of God.  Many of the comments in response are people who are just in awe of his faith.  I think many of the followers of this online journal would say that this man would qualify as a saint.

Would someone say that about us?  Are we living in such a way that others look to us as an example?  Even in the midst of our painful drop to the bottom of the roller coaster, are we still clinging to God? The way we live our lives, whether it’s in a good place or not, says a lot about our relationship with Jesus. 

Whether we’re floating on the top of the coaster, or trudging our way through the bottom, God can use us to be an encouragement to others.

We can BE someone’s encouragement.

In a world that is broken, we can be the encouragement that it needs. Maybe our friends and family will be the ones thanking God for us.  Maybe our neighbors will be the ones thanking God for us.  Maybe your nurses and therapists will be the ones thanking God for us.

I pray that we can live lives worthy of God and that God can use us to encourage others.  Amen.

Benediction:

Receive the benediction:  “To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.  We pray that God will fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding, and this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord. Amen.”