A sermon by Owen Rogers with thanks to Max Lucado for the piece entitled, ‘The Choice’.
Early in the week I was talking with Margot’s mechanic. (Margot is our Morris Minor). We were talking about sthe tate of our world and trying to find ways of putting it right – something I’ve been doing since I was a teenager. We didn’t solve anything; just agreed there’s a mess. As I biked away I was thinking, “I know Jesus is the answer but how can I say that in a way that makes sense and is practical?”
I believe that many of you also find yourselves wrestling with the same question. I found the essence of an answer in verse 25 of our reading. ‘The Spirit has given us life; He must also control our lives.’ or ‘we must get in step with the Spirit.’ Let me unpack that a little.
How do we change the world? It’s Jesus who makes the difference.
How does Jesus do this? One life at a time, from the inside out.
New self-image.
A lot of the problems in society exist because people don’t know who they are. They don’t know their own value and have no idea of anyone else’s value. It used to be said that life is sacred but I haven’t heard that for years. People need to know that people have value – as does all of creation – and we know we have value because God made us all and because God says so.
How much value? Infinite value – the value of God’s life. God became human and died for us. That’s the measure of our worth – every one of us. The reason he died was to reconnect us with him. To connect it’s like we die and he lives in us; we exchange our life for his. We die in surrender to Christ and so the Spirit controls our life.
That’s how we get to know our true value, and because we know God we know who we are – God’s dearly loved children – we know who we need to listen to and who we don’t. Who we need to fear and who we don’t. Who we need to follow, that is God, not fashions, fads and trends. And we find all this in the Bible which is not an old-fashioned book at all. The Bible is good for all time.
Power to change
How does this Spirit life work? The Holy Spirit gives us the power to change our thinking, beliefs, reactions and responses. As we learn the truth from the Bible and from putting the Bible teaching into action we find that this truth frees us from wrong actions, reactions, attitudes, .. We can do all sorts of things we could hardly do before. We can love those who apppose and wrong us – isn’t that amazing? We’ve exchanged our life for his; then we go on to exchange our old wrong beliefs for his right beliefs. And as we do that our characters change and we slowly come to look and be more like Jesus.
The gifts of the Spirit are the abilities he gives us to do the ministry that he assigns to us. The fruit, on the other hand, are the aspects of God’s character that grow in us so that we become more and more like Jesus. That is the Spirit giving us life.
Choices
And all this comes down to choices. We are constantly choosing between different options and hopefully we are chosing God’s option. Another story from my week. On Wednesday, while I was biking to Takapuna, I was thinking of all the things I needed to do that day and wondering how I was going to fit them in. I had one thing to do at Unitec – to meet with a particular student. That we did. By the time I was biking home again I was figuring out what I could realistically accomplish in order of importance. In the end I did 3 out of 8 things and the rest were rolled over to Thursday and beyond. I was reminded again that the most important thing is not the particular tasks we get done, but it is that they are ordered by Jesus and accomplished in his power.
So we need to keep in step with the Spirit. Conversations recently around the subject of God ordering our days has me wanting to revive the 60-60 experiment. We start with the question, “How do we stay God-focussed throughout the day?” How do we live in the presence of God? The 60-60 experiment is not the final answer, it is a way of stepping out in that direction. Find some way of giving yourself a reminder, a cue, to turn your attention to God. The title 60-60 refers to the idea of setting an alarm to go off every hour of every day for 60 days. If an alarm is not practical for you, you could write notes to yourself and put them in places you visit often, like the bathroom mirror, on the sill above the sink, on the dashboard of the car – anywhere that will give you a frequent reminder. I wrote “Jesus is here” on a post-it note and stuck it on my computer screen. Whatever cue you devise, use it to remind you to continue your conversation with God. It may be a prayer of thanks for the day or something specific. You may ask God to intervene in a situation or help a person you name. You may want God’s help in what you’re doing or to ask a question that’s nagging at you. Try it for a week and tell us about it.
Finally on this subject of choices, a piece by Max Lucado. How do we stay in God’s way through the day? We choose to live out His character.
The Choice
It’s quiet. It’s early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is asleep. The day is coming. In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be replaced by the pounding of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met.
For the next sixteen hours I will be exposed to the day’s demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose.
I choose love …
No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.
I choose joy …
I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical … the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportuity to see God.
I choose peace ..
I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.
I choose patience …
I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I’ll invite him to do so. Rather than complain that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clenching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.
I chose kindness …
I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.
I choose goodness …
I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness.
I choose faithfulness…
Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my word. My wife will not question my love. And my children will never fear their father will not come home.
I chose gentleness…
Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice, may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. It I make a demand, may it be only of myself.
I choose self-control…
I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot, rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control.
Love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek his grace. And then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest.