Sermon Slaps

Have you ever heard a sermon that you weren't ready to hear? It's kinda like Matlock turning the case upside down in the courtroom, breaking the witness down in front of the judge. So Sunday we got into some of the lowest common denominators of sin struggles. The passage used was in Luke 8 when Jesus is sleeping on the boat during the storm. The problem was the panic of the apostles due to their lack of faith. I lose sight of God's omnipresence, I have a hard time walking by faith when something's rocking the boat. -Have you ever experienced God's peace? That all-surpassing tranquility? I think my soul has found rest, and my burdens have been lifted, but the blessing of peace?

Next came those common denominators, inhibitors of peace. I have refused blessings from the Lord. God wants to tell me I'm smart but i hold up to Him the papers of diagnosis saying, no I'm crazy. God wants to tell me I'm handsome through a special lady. But in large part, I refuse it because I've been overweight for a long time and I have people I love calling me butterball. This is stuff i don't admit to others but it affects me daily. Its a manipulation of shame that Satan has leveraged into me (i've allowed it to nestle). So now when I'm trying to be studious, and grow my intellect through the studying at Moody. And the Lord just wants to fill me up with blessing through brain and heart growth. However, the shame of my mental past quickly becomes a peace prohibitor. instead i pump up the procrastination, i get impatient when i read because I'm slower than your average grad student. -God isn't comparing me to others. He wants me to succeed and pass. Its shame imposed on my life that rejects God's blessing.

Were not finished, another common denominator was fear that keeps the storms raging when the peace of Christ is sleeping within. This was particularly in regards to the future. As a young believer in Jesus Christ I have less of an excuse than I imagine an older believer does. Because the plans i had for my life were botched, crumbled and voided. Jesus breathed new life into me. That contrast from how I'd been living is so obvious to me that Its a severe lack of faith for me to not trust God with what's going to happen with my life. Does that make sense? Yet fears is a-brewing in terms of: Marriage, fatherhood, career I haven't had many examples of that stuff working to honor God. I'm fearful, and anxious this is adult stuff that has implications beyond just me. Really though, God is mighty to save! And His peace can be prized and desired above all this. The God I know and serve just wants me to worship Him, trust in his plan and have faith.

I'm not in control, I'm not out of control; I'm blessed and dearly, dearly loved by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Love and peace,